I've had the same issue at home, with a very hard or burnt crust bottom:

I've made the following adjustments through experimentation. This will help greatly, but might not fix the problem entirely. I routinely preheat my empty dutch oven in the oven set to 500F with the lid on. When baking, I take it down a notch to 475F. I do one or more of the following steps before I place the loaf in the hot dutch oven:

Convection: I'll mention this first, because it makes the largest difference. If your oven has the convection baking feature (mine does not), enable it. It moves the heat around evenly, but it also helps the thermostat do its job properly and keep the set temperature.
Add a layer of semolina/cornmeal/flour: Add a generous layer of durum wheat semolina at the bottom of the dutch oven. Don't worry about putting too much on. You can brush off the excess after baking. Whatever doesn't stick to your bread will just fall out of the dutch oven (no cleaning needed). I've also successfully used corn meal as a substitute, but corn meal has a tendency to caramelize a bit more if you leave it on the surface of the bread, and it also has a sweeter taste. The semolina will brown, but it will form a small heat barrier between the dutch oven and the loaf. I use parchment paper to transfer the loaf into the dutch oven, and so my semolina ends up under the paper. You can try semolina without parchment paper, but it will add texture to the bottom of your baked loaf (which can be quite good!)

You can also combine this with a layer of flour on the bread which will also protect the bottom somewhat, but not as much as semolina or cornmeal. Semolina has larger grain size and I find it provides additional "spacing". Also consider modifying the recipe, and roll your loaf in sesame seed when you add it to your proofing basket. I find this helps too, and you can scrape the dark ones off easily after baking. It also looks (and tastes) good.
Add a layer of chaff/bran: If you mill your own flour, you can use a layer of chaff/bran (the stuff you sift out) at the bottom of the dutch oven. It's a good insulator. Brush it off when your loaf is done. Got this tip from the perfect loaf.
Add parchment paper: If you use parchment paper to transfer the loaf into the dutch oven, you can use a second layer of parchment paper. Make sure you trim whatever protrudes from the rim of the dutch oven -- you want a good seal on the lid to trap steam in.
Move to a higher rack / use baking sheet(s): Move the dutch oven to the highest position that your oven can accommodate (farthest away from the element), and place the whole dutch oven on a baking sheet. You can insert an additional baking sheet on a rack below. I suspect using a baking stone (or baking steel) under the dutch oven would protect from direct heat even more. A stone or steel should dampen changes in temperature when the heating element starts/stops. Covering an area with foil would also work (I'm used to cookie sheets because I would pour water on them to steam the oven -- I find they're less trouble than foil).
Switch to cast iron: If you are using a ceramic/earthware dutch oven, try switching to a cast-iron dutch oven (enameled or not). The heat retention and conductivity of metal is much higher and more heat is radiated by the sides of the dutch oven. This may seem controversial, given that so many bread cocottes are made of clay/ceramic -- but my personal experiences with my (cheap/inexpensive) clay pot is that my sourdough breads were carbonized on the bottom.

The brand of cast iron doesn't matter so much in my opinion. I've used several brands of cast iron dutch ovens (Lodge, Staub, Lagostina), all with similar results. What I've found matters most is not so much the brand, but rather how well the lid fits -- you want to trap the steam as much as possible (it keeps the loaf cooler). If your lid doesn't make good contact around the rim (e.g. if there's a wobble), you can try making a "gasket" with a silicone baking mat sandwiched between the lid and the pot.
Use finer marks on analog knobs / monitor temperature: The temperature dial on my oven is analog and doesn't have much tactile feedback (no notches nor clicking), and there's probably a 10-15F average error when choosing a setting because of the size of the paint notches on the temperature dial. This is slightly OCD, but I line up the edges of the paint lines rather than the centers, to get a reproducible setting between bakings. An oven thermometer might be a good investment if your kitchen oven's like mine, and you need to fine tune the rheostat to recalibrate dial markings to "real" temperatures.
Adjust baking temperature / baking time: Lastly, this is somewhat obvious, (but sometimes non-trivial depending on the recipe,) but consider reducing your baking temperature to account for any make/model discrepancies for your oven. Get an oven thermometer to monitor the real oven temperature (or even inside the dutch oven if you have a probe). Adjust the recipe time accordingly.
Live with it: This is somewhat of a boring solution, but find a way to appreciate the darker/thicker crust, or scrape the burnt bits with a knife. Different unique flavors get brought out in the crust. If you find it difficult to cut through thick bottom crust with a serrated bread knife (which is personally what I dislike the most about thick crust), try slicing with a long and sharp chef knife instead, and rock back and forth on it -- i find it easier.

Something else I haven't tried yet, but could work well, is to use a thick silicone baking mat at the bottom of the dutch oven instead of parchment paper. But it might need to be cut to shape (and hence, sacrificed for that purpose) to avoid deforming the loaf as it expands -- they are far more rigid than parchment paper and don`t hug the sides of the oven as well, esp when the mat is square and the oven is round/oval. If your oven is of the "cloche" kind, then of course the shape/size of the mat doesn't matter as much if you can close the lid down hermetically over the (protruding) mat.


They absolutely do. They're "dried" but they're not really dry. They will continue to dry out until they become grainy and weird. Most dried fruit is this way, with the exception of freeze dried fruit, which has the opposite problem: once you open it, it absorbs moisture from the air, and gets gummy and gross.


How can I safely use a blender with hot liquids?

It can be a bit tricky, a couple of tips:

Use a lot less liquid in the blender than normal. Do batches if needed.
Vent the lid so the steam can escape. A lot of lids have a center piece that can come out. Using less liquid will stop stuff coming out the top.
As Ocaasi suggests, you can cover the open lid with a kitchen towel as you start to insure there's no spray.
Start the blender slow and then speed it up. This may not work depending on how fast your slowest setting is. But once the vortex gets going, the liquid won't splash. It's only when the blades start that you have that issue. Slower start speed means less splash (a vita-mix can start very slowly and have no splash at all, great for hot liquids but the price tag is a bit high).


While you could probably do dried blueberries in a VERY low oven (150F), you'll most likely need to prop the door open slightly to allow moisture to escape.  You'd be best to do them in an actual food dehydrator which will have a fan to expell the moisture being released from the food.

Keep in mind however that if dried as they are, they will shrivel up into fairly hard little bits.  If your goal is something similar to the dried blueberries that you can buy in retail stores, they will have to be treated in a sugar syrup to maintain the chewy texture and keep them from totally drying out.  I'm not sure if the commercial producers are first drying and then soaking in a sugar solution and perhaps drying again so that the sugar is drawn into the cells of the berry.  Whatever the case...commercial dried cranberries and blueberries maintain the chewy texture due to being treated with a sugar solution at some point.

If you are looking for ways to handle a bumper crop or bulk buy on blueberries, I would recommend freezing them and stick to buying commercially processed dried berries for the best results, least effort, and greatest bang for your buck.


What are the correct simmering times for chicken/vegetable stock?

It is true that flavour is affected by cooking time. Most likely nutrients as well, but its about the vegetables. If you cook beef stock you should indeed cook it for several hours to release the collagen and proteins. My experience with chicken takes less time so 30 minutes in the pressure cooker or 1,5 hours in a normal pot. Then you can eat the meat as well.
Vegetables should only cook for 30 minuts so add the vegetables 30 minutes before the end of cooking regardless of the kind of soup. The fresh flavor of the vegetables will disapear if you cook it for longer then that.
Someone doing research on the flavour development and time for making stock


Eggnog: After adding egg yolks, does chill time make a difference, before having added the egg whites?

The real issue, I think, is that you want to add the egg whites immediately before service, as they will begin deflating once they are whipped and mixed in.

So instead of holding the mix a certain period of time, instead you hold the mix until prior to service, and then fold in the whites, which should be freshly whipped.


What would happen if I blended (liquified) onions and then reduced the result?

You would first boil the onions and then most likely burn them.

1st: boiling. Caramelization needs higher temperatures than 100 Celsius but as far as there is water in the mixture, temperature won't rise. Therefore you'll get boiled onions.

2nd: burning. Once the water is gone temperature rises very fast and since caramelization takes time you get to burn them first.

Chopping vs blending:

Chopped onions keep the fluids inside the cells and release them gradually. This makes the temparature rise over 100 °C and prevents it to go too high. This way is much easier to set the stove to the right temperature.

Water and oil:

Water and oil don't like each other very much so trying to add oil to a watery mixture is a bad bad idea. Chooped is the only way if you use an oiled pan.

Notes:

Caramelization happens around 120-165 Celsius, below the browning is too slow and above will be fast burnt
If you want carmelized onion paste, blend afterwards.
To speed up the process and get a paste at the same time you can add baking soda to the onions. Maillard reaction (browning) is much much faster in alcaline environment, which you'll get by adding the baking soda. Also cells will degrade and you'll end up with a paste. Worth a try just to see the results.

Guide:
Here is a guide to carmelized onions from serious eats where they address the how and the why.


What is the liquid that forms after chicken goes through the freeze-thaw cycle, and how can I extract it more efficiently?

When you freeze meat the water in the cells crystallizes into ice, and in some case ruptures the cell walls. When you thaw the chicken again, the contents of the ruptured cells' are free. These are mostly the water, and the cells proteins.

Additionally, processed meats often have some water and additives added to the at the factory.

The "juice" you are seeing is probably a combination of these things.


Converting yeast amounts from old recipes

This is short for “1 large cake of yeast.” According to this investigation, cakes of yeast traditionally came in two sizes:

Small, around 3/5 of an ounce
Large, around 2 ounces

This similar recipe gives the substitution “1 large yeast or 3 envelopes dry yeast.”’


Making whole wheat bread in a bread machine? What kind of flour?

Bread flour has more gluten, which is a protein that makes bread stretchy and less crumbly when the dough is prepared right. There is plenty of whole wheat bread flour out there, and you can often get mixes which are specifically made for bread machines, I'd start with those and see how you go. If you cannot find them in your local store you might be able to find them online.

You can also read the label on the back of the flour, higher protein flours generally mean they have more gluten. You can sometimes find non-bread flours that have almost as much protein as those marketed as bread flours, so next time you are at the store have a look.


Good Yorkshire pudding is not an art, it's a science. You need three things:

Hot fat
A hot oven
Batter of the right consistency

The only raising agent in Yorkshire Pudding is steam from the water in the liquid ingredients. You need to convert that water into steam fast to get a good rise, and you need the batter to crisp up quickly so it doesn't collapse.

This is why you need hot fat and a hot oven. I would say 180C is much too low: use 220C*. Preheating the dish is a good idea - use a good, thick, metal pan, preheated along with the oven. Then place that on the hob and fry the sausages in it, then add the batter. Then it's straight in the oven. This ensures as little heat as possible is lost . Do not open the oven during cooking if you can possibly help it. The sudden drop in temperature and the shock of the door closing will destroy the structure.

Adding cold oil to the pan is, as you can imagine, a bad idea. Instead, fry your sausages with enough oil to rise the batter with (if you're worried about the fat, you shouldn't be eating Toad in the Hole anyway) and it will get good and hot while you fry the bangers. If it doesn't sizzle when you pour the batter in, you might as well throw it out.

Batter consistency is the hardest thing to get right. Too thin and there won't be enough gluten to provide structure. Too thick and it will collapse under its own weight. About the consistency of double cream is right, but experience is the only real teacher. I usually whisk my batter with a balloon whisk, leave it to sit for a couple of hours, then give it a good whisk before adding to the pan.

*Oven dials lie. Get an oven thermometer to see how much. My last oven was 30 degrees cooler than it said on the dial.


When we have had garlic in our garden I have used the garlic leaves. They do have a garlicky flavor but are milder than garlic cloves. I tend to use them more as I would chives or garlic chives as in addition to having the milder flavor than the cloves they make for a quite nice presentation.

Regarding drying them, I have never tried it. Off the top of my head I can't think of any reason not to dry them for later use but there may be issues that I just don't know about.


Does cutting off a pineapple's crown shorten its longevity?

It depends on where you cut it - if you are taking off the majority of leaves, but leaving the "fruit" intact, then it should be fine. If you are actually cutting into the fruit, then it will affect how well/long it keeps and how it matures.

Incidentally - it is much better for flavour development to keep fruit like this outside the refrigerator. Also, if you are in a warm country, you can actually cut the crown off a mature pineapple and place it in a pot and let it grow. Over time it will produce a pineapple plant and, provided you look after it enough, even produce a new pineapple fruit.


Why do some ingredients in baking recipes need to be at room temperature?

The exact reason depends on the particular ingredient and recipe.  Some common ones include:

General temperature.  By having all of the ingredients at room temperature, the time it takes to bake the overall item(s) is easier to predict, leading to better, more consistent outcomes.
Egg whites  Egg whites form the protein network that creates the foam when whipped more easily at room temperature than they do cold, so will whip up more quickly and with more volume.
Butter   Butter is often desired slightly cooler than room temperature, for its plastic properties; it incorporates air for the creaming method best slightly below most room temperatures.  Otherwise, it is easier to spread or incorporate when warmer.
Cream cheese  Easier to mix with sugar or other ingredients at room temperature than when cold.


What is the place called where cheese is aged?

I don't think there's a specific name for it.
I found a book that simply refers to it as an "aging space/room".

The Aging Room: The "Big Three" Design Issues
When designing an aging space, there are three main factors to consider: temperature, humidity, and air (both air exchange and movement). Each of these factors will be influenced by the volume and type of cheese being aged; your area's native influences (weather and soil/earth stability and properties; also if your building is underground); and the building structure and size.
The Small-Scale Cheese Business: The Complete Guide to Running a Successful Farmstead Creamery p. 126

Around the web, I've seen it referred to as a "cheese cave", which refers to the historical habit of using caves for aging cheese.

How to Make a Cheese “Cave” - This is a guide on aging cheese in a refrigerator.
Crown Finish Caves - A cheese aging facility in Brooklyn, NY.
Wegman's Food Market opened a "cheese cave" in 2014.

For a similar reason, I've seen a smaller number of references to "cheese cellar".


Much of it has to do with how you store it, and what the issues are in your area with that storage method in the given season (is it going to go stale before it goes moldy?)

I find that the bread that's least likely to go off before I get to the end of the loaf is sourdough ... but I get my sourdough from a place that uses a real starter, and isn't just mass produced with a sour flavor added.

... but there are also breads with additives & preservatives in them that they'll easily resist molding for more than a week ... but it doesn't make particularly good toast in my opinion.


You might actually want to look at other methods - either alongside or instead of your current dehydration.

"Commercial" Vinegar powder (where it isn't actually just the acid components) is basically maltodextrin  sprayed with your vinegar and dried. There's a ton of references like this one, though admittedly I learnt this from watching how its made.

The nice thing here is you don't really need more heat (or high heat) to do this.  In theory you might also be able to do it with starch.

Since the water is 'locked away' its also less likely to dissolve your capsule

I'm almost half certain that I remember that spray drying or freeze drying would work too, but I can't find any sources, and these arn't processes one can easily do at home


Are these bacteria colonies in my canned sardines?

The white specs are not colonies of bacteria, but in fact, crystallized oils. This phenomena is common in many tinned fish rich in fatty oils. This is normal and completely safe to eat.

If it bothers you too much, you can try reheating it, which should dissolve the crystallized oils back into the sauce. Just remember not to microwave anything metal.

This link provides some information about it too.
http://ayambrand.com.sg/mackerel/46-about/frequently-asked-questions/about-our-quality/37-what-to-do-with-the-fish-oil-white-particles.html


What's the name of the black-brown decoration sauce used in French cooking?

It is most probably crema di balsamico, a quite popular condiment, even often only used for decorative purposes. It can both be used with savory dishes, but also with sweet dishes, as in e.g. ice cream or gelato.

Traditionally, crema di balsamico is made by reducing grape juice and optionally wine to the point where the sugar in the grape juice starts to caramelise and then deglaze the reduction with balsamic vinegar. Convenience products are often pepped with food colouring and thickening agents.


How to make potato wheel not stick to mold

I suggest removing the metal frame before frying. Then lower the potato wheel in the fryer slowly with a basket.
If your potato wheel doesn't hold the shape on its own, put it in the freezer until it hardens then remove the ring and fry it (the potato ring, not the metal one :P)


Why do my salmon fish cakes break up in frying?

In order to get fried cakes to stick together, they want to be cold when they go in to the oil. This allows them to congeal so that they are more solid. If you are leaving your ingredients out while frying or if there are warm ingredients giving off steam, this could explain the slow degradation with each batch. Once they're done in the food processor, put them in the fridge (or freezer) to cool them. Pull out just enough for a single batch at any one time.


Foil over cookie sheet over broiling pan?

It's possible that the recipe author was going for insulation from the heat of the oven's element/flames on the bottom.  This would give you more cooking by convection - or baking without the browning on the bottom (conduction) where the food touched the thin pan.

Another way around this is insulated baking sheets - two layers with air in the middle.  On cookies, they take longer and reduce browning.  So this seems to me to be an approach to the insulated baking sheet, creating a workaround on the assumption that people have the other equipment at hand.


Are electric knives used in foodservice?

I would consider the professional equivalent of the electric carving knife to be the meat slicer, i.e. the rotating blade device most often seen behind the deli counter.

At home, to break down a roast bird, take the meat off of a lamb-leg, etc., a good manual knife is most likely the proper tool.

If, on the other hand, I have a large ham (cooked or cold), or some other chunk of boneless meat that I want to slice more-or-less uniformly, then I will break out my electric knife.  For the home user, it is a fairly practical device, not taking up too much space, etc.

But its uniformity and speed cannot compare to the slicer.  As to a professional kitchen, you may or may not find one there.  Certainly in deli-type restaurants you would have them.  In a more traditional restaurant they are not as concerned with quick production of sliced meat, so any slicing is probably done by hand.


The best solution would probably be to get the buns par-baked, or to get frozen dough.
The problem with buns is that they're small and they rise very quickly. At a commercial bakery where I worked, most of our buns would be ready to bake within 2 hours tops, even if they spent their entire second rise refrigerated.
Frozen dough can be easier to work with, if it's frozen correctly. If it's mixed cold and frozen as soon as possible after mixing, it can work pretty well. If it's frozen too late, the yeast will be too active and cause a boozy flavor when they're baked, and the extra yeast die-off can make the dough go extremely slack when it thaws. Getting frozen dough leaves you with the problem of keeping enough dough thawed (and then being sure you can get the thawed dough molded, proofed, and baked in time, which you'd have anyway, frozen or not).


One time I was making a focaccia and instead of spraying a water mist in the oven I accidentally sprayed kitchen cleaner in the very hot oven! This did not go well. I got a face full of super-heated kitchen cleaner and the bread smelled and tasted of chemicals so I had to throw it away.
I doubt very much that this is the case with your friend's bread though. Most likely the taste is from an ingredient in the bread that has a strong flavor. Spices like aniseed, fennel, cardamom, or herbs like lavender are very aromatic and add strong flavors as well which some would say are very chemical-like. Some people like this, some people do not and it's fair to say you are one of the latter. Those ingredients are safe to eat, just not to your taste.
A test of whether it is an ingredient or an actual cleaning product causing the smell and taste would be to pull a bit of the bread from the center and taste it in isolation. Take your sample to a different room away from the other bread to test it. If your sample tastes like detergent it's in the ingredients, if the smell and taste is only on the outside of the bread or close to the surface then it's likely actual chemicals.


You are correct that the milk is heated to denature the albumin so that it becomes part of the structure of the yogurt instead of washing out in the whey. When distributed through the yogurt properly this protein will not cause the clumping problems you are seeing.

You shouldn't expect to make ricotta from yogurt whey- even if the milk wasn't boiled it just doesn't work well.

Most yogurt problems, including breaking and clumping, are caused by poor temperature control. Heating the milk too much during incubation, over incubating, or erratic temperatures, can all cause your bacteria to misbehave. Often this causes the yogurt to be too acidic and to curdle which would explain your clumping.

As has been canvassed in other answers; the best yogurt incubation temperatures are between 100 - 110°F (38-48°C) but it seems to vary a little with the starter. The best results seem to be had from putting 110°F (48°C) milk in an insulated container to incubate rather than trying to use a heater.

Many yogurt recipes call for powdered milk to boost the milk protein in the mix. Another possible explanation is if you mixed it in insufficiently.


Help! I sliced my flank steak along the grain, is there a way to still have tender meat?

I will shamelessly steal @Jolenealaska's thunder and recommend velveting your meat as a means to protect against overcooking.  This is a great method to bring meats just up to temperature, and is a very traditional preparation for stir-frys.  Should work nicely with your Hunan Beef.


How long should I mature my mincemeat before making Mince Pies?

Mincemeat originally had meat in it along with suet and a small amount of fruits and spices.

As the cost of the fruits and spices dropped the quantities started to shift until now, you never see any meat at all besides the suet in traditional mincemeat.
Victorian times they would make the mincemeat in the late fall and set it aside in the root cellar for about 8 weeks but evidently could be held for upwards to 6 months.  The cool cellar and the high percent of spirits didn't cause much harm to them back then.  The longer the better as the fruit and suet would absorb more flavours.

Here's a link to a Google book that has a recipe from 1786:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=zZIEAAAAYAAJ&dq=mincemeat&pg=PA423#v=onepage&q=mincemeat&f=false

It doesn't sound that great but then the really old dishes never were.


What does pulling on syrup (in the semi-solid state) do to the texture/taste?

It aerates the sugar (you do the same for taffy) - adding tiny bubbles in the final product.

It makes the finished product lighter and chewier instead of denser and hard.


Why does frozen bread sort of taste different?

Over the short term moisture is "locked into the packet". As bread freezes moisture from the bread often condenses and freezes on the inside of the packaging. If you then defrost the bread slowly in the same packaging this moisture is reabsorbed. If you only defrost a few slices at a time this moisture is lost when you take those slices out of the bag. These ice particles can also end up in your freezer rather in the bag.

To keep the moisture level closer to the original: freeze bread in portions you are likely to defrost them in and make sure any bags or wrap you use is suitable for the freezer. If you freeze whole loaves double bagging them or wrapping in some way helps.

These steps will also stop other flavours from your freezer being absorbed which should help.


Is it okay and safe to store pulses, grains, rice etc. in these containers?

When storing nonperishable dry foods, such as pulses or grains or protein powder, you want the container to be reasonably airtight and impermeable, which that container appears to be. There aren't any other major considerations. Should be fine.


If it's fresh Trout with the skin on then yes, rinse the slime off. If it was frozen then you might have another problem...


How do you cook boneless chicken thighs?

This is my favorite cut: the boneless, skinless chicken thigh. I generally sear it in a pan that already has oil and spices in it, to seal the meat, and then reduce the heat to the higher end of Medium to cook it in an open pan. If hovering over it while it cooks isn't practical for you, try spicing and breading it before you fry it. The coating makes the meat more forgiving about when it is turned, etc., and helps to seal in the moisture.


How do I prepare prawns such that they are straight after boiling/steaming?

Wash the shrimp and remove only the head.
Insert a bamboo skewer along the shrimp from head to tail, running along the legs without touching flesh
Drop into boiling, salted water for 3-5 minutes (do not put a lid on); after this period, they'll change color and rise to the top. If they feel firm, they are cooked.
Quickly place them into ice water, which helps them have good color and stops the flesh from shrinking and becoming hard.
When shrimp are cold, remove from ice water and drain in a colander.
To remove the skewer, use a screwing motion.

For nigiri-sushi:

Remove shell from around body, but not the tail.
Butterfly cut open, cutting from head to tail along the belly with the knife only going halfway in.
Use the knife or your fingers to open it up and flatten it carefully, without further breaking the flesh.
Remove vein and rinse with lightly salted water. Lay on papertowels to drain.

If using for sushi rolls, remove tail and cut in half lengthwise.


A quick internet search "Café Brulot" returns a number of recipes.

There is even a scan of"Good Taste Today" by Emily Post in the St. Petersburg Times Feb 6 1938) that describes the Café Brulot (not a recipe).

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=nx9PAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Wk0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=3267%2C872400


Making cake and added oil at end instead of at the beginning

It's been a while since I've done it (mine were mostly with muffins, although I might've done it with some zucchini brownies this past spring), but I want to say it'll come out, but it might be different.
You'll have developed more gluten, as oil coating the flour prevents the water from getting to it as quickly.  And there's the extra beating to get it all in there.  So it probably won't come out as light as you were hoping.
But I find zucchini bread & cake recipes to be highly variable anyway -- as how much liquid you squeeze out of it (and by extension, how finely you grate it), has a huge impact on the final result.


Can I use boiled potatoes in Spanish omelette?

You shouldn't use boiled potatoes as you have to fry them.

This is a good recipe, and no, tomatoes are not part of "authentic" Spanish omelette. In Spain we call it "Potato omelette" an the only ingredients are eggs, potatoes, olive oil, salt and sometimes onion.


What can I use to strain gritty bloody mary mix?

Line a salad spinner with cheese cloth or another lightweight cloth. Fill and spin.


Is it safe that my medium-rare steak is cold in the middle?

Solid meat (such as a roast or steak) can be quite rare on the inside and still be considered safe by conservative government or academic standards. Solid meat is different from ground meat because bacteria (Salmonella and E. coli are of particular concern) get mixed into the meat from the surface when the meat is ground. When you sear a steak, you effectively clean the surface where the potential bacteria live.

Those same conservative standards don't recognize rare (as in cold) as safe. However, steak tartare and other raw beef is served in restaurants all over the world.

Source Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

According to the same extremely conservative source:

  the meat needs to reach 145°F internally and stand for three or more minutes before cutting or consuming. Unfortunately, even if preferred by foodies, there's no way to guarantee the safety of rare meat. That also means raw meat delights, like steak tartare or beef carpaccio, are not considered safe.

I have many years of experience eating very rare and sometimes raw beef. If the  meat is fresh and from a reliable source, I have no problem eating it very rare.

The standard caveat applies that extra care (and heat) is required for the immunocompromised or pregnant.


What's the difference between pan frying, sauteing, and shallow frying?

Pan frying means letting the food sit in the pan and occasionally stirring or flipping.  It tends to be done with larger pieces of food, and at a medium to medium-high heat.

Sautéing means shaking the pan back and forth - making the food "jump", if you're translating directly.  It's done at a high heat, for a short time, usually with thinly-sliced or finely-chopped ingredients.

Shallow frying, according to some references, refers to the food being partially (halfway) submerged in hot oil and flipped once, as opposed to deep-frying where the food is fully-submerged the whole time.


How to store organic cold press sunflower oil for long term usage?

Keep it sealed and in the dark. It will last for a long time so long as it doesn't get contaminated.

Do NOT put in the fridge, it will get ruined overnight.


How does red wine butter impact the flavor of dishes?

The main point, IMHO, is to make an easy to use and flavorful compound butter. It can be put on top of grilled meats, tossed in with a sautee of meat/veggies/pasta, etc.

I would finely mince some onion or shallot and garlic. Lightly sweat them, then add wine and reduce. Add some fresh herbs and the butter and melt to combine. I then cool this until lightly set, then roll it in a tube in some plastic wrap and freeze it. It can then be sliced off, like tubed cookie dough, and placed on top of grilled/baked meats, etc...

The wine and herbs add a rich, deep flavor that can be used in a variety of ways.


I saw a recommendation on 30 Minute Meals to place each one in a muffin tin (they were sized so they stuck out the top), and then bake them.  You'd have to find the right sized tray for your size of meatballs, though.

I'm guessing you'd also want a large tray underneath, though, or you risk dripping grease inside the oven.

... you could probably also just put 'em on a sheet tray and bake 'em, and you'd only get one flat side, rather than from each time you turned them in the pan.


Homogenizing whole milk, butter, and vodka

Homogenization has a fairly specific meaning in dairy. To keep the relatively large milk fat globules in cow's milk from coalescing, the milk is forced under some pressure through a very small aperture that atomizes the fat and keeps it in solution.

Although it seems like this might work with butter I doubt very much that this is a worthwhile solution (pun intended).

What you want, therefore, is to create an emulsion. Butter has some emulsifiers in it but I don't think it will be up to this task on its own.

The idea with any emulsion is to blend emulsifiers into the liquid and then slowly add the fat. The emulsifier will grab the particles of fat and keep them from coalescing and so keep them in solution. Look at mayonnaise recipes for examples of this technique though, of course, you don't want as much air worked into your dish.

I would mix a small amount of lecithin into the milk and whisk it quickly as you drizzle in the butter.

As for the vodka- I don't use alcohol and can't predict how it will behave. If your milk is cold then you shouldn't have a problem with curdling and should be able to mix the vodka directly in with the milk. I fear that if it went directly into the butter that there would be enough liquid to make the emulsification difficult.


Unlike with stovetop recipes, you need not heat the major part of your milk first and then add the starch slurry, you can mix everything while cold. As with all similar microwave recipes, using a wide bowl (preferably with straight sides) is best suited for the job. Use short microwave intervals at medium power, give the mix a quick stir with a whisk every minute or so. You want to heat the milk as evenly as possible while keeping the starch more or less suspended. "Hot spots" will create the dreaded lumps, similar to not stirring well when cooking on the stove.

And when you reach a certain temperature threshold, the "magic" starts: gelatinization happens everywhere at roughly the same time and your whole mix thickens almost instantly. (Unlike in a pot, where it starts at the bottom.) Simmer half a minute longer or so, give it a final stir and your pudding is done.


How much steam are you using? You might try baking the first 20 minutes in a french oven* (aka enameled dutch oven) and then take off the lid, but don't add extra steam. If you don't have a lame, use a razor blade or a really sharp boning knife (or a sharp paring knife can also do).

This kind of problem can also be caused by underproofing, but it sounds like you're doing a good job there. Just make sure the bread doesn't spend too long proofing between your last fold and the fridge.

Also, just based on the shape it looks like your dough maybe over-hydrated.

*pre-heat the french oven and lid, though some people omit this step, drop in your bread, cover, bake for 20 minutes, then uncover and bake for 25-30 minutes longer.


Make another batch of chili with no or reduced onions, and combine them--freeze if needed, so you can use it all.  This is the only reasonly guaranteed way to resolve the issue.  Chili freezes and holds very well, so this might be practical even though somewhat extravagent with the ingredients.

I know that isn't what you want to hear, but it is the truth.  BTW, the potato and salt reduction thing is a kitchen myth.


Why add vanilla extract after removal from the heat, and what about fake vanilla extract?

Liquid vanilla extract has alcohol in it, so if you add this extract to hot cocoa, puddings, fudge, or anything you make with heat, the alcohol burns off and so does most of the flavor.  If you wait for it to cool off the flavor stays strong.  Same thing goes for artificial vanilla also because of the alcohol levels (but the flavor is just not there to begin with with artificial flavor).  If you use vanilla beans, open up the pod and scrape the inside of it and put it in the beginning with the hot mix.  That is another story.  It is very delicious, but you see teeny tiny little beans swimming in your lighter mixes like vanilla bean ice cream.


The problem with buying tailoring fabric for food use is that sometimes such fabric is treated. Many treatments are not especially problematic (for example starch), but there are others - there is a method for making shirt fabric wrinkle-free which uses formaldehyde.

It is the best to buy real cheesecloth, created for this purpose. The second best option is to buy uncolored organic fabric, it's seldom treated. If you can get neither, a tea towel is also a good option. It's supposed to be used in food settings, cheap, and does not have to have any special features as cloth, so it's unlikely that it's treated. Its dye is probably also quite leak-prone, as tea towels should be able to be washed at very high temperature. But still, if you can find white (or even better, unbleached) towels, they'll be best, because textile dyes can be toxic themselves.

If you really have to get it in a fabric store, go for pure cotton. (Flax should work, but it's unnecessarily expensive). You need it in plain weave, no twill, satin or anything else. And somewhat loose weave is indeed best, as Joe already mentioned. It should be fairly thin, too. "Standard" muslin will probably work more or less, but not as good as regular cheesecloth, as it's a bit too tightly woven.

Another option is to find out if somebody can sell you gauze meant for dressing wounds. It is loose enough, and untreated. It will allow you to make somewhat soft paneer. If you want to press yours very firm, gauze will probably tear. It is also probably not so easy to find, as nowadays there are other products used for wound dressing.


What camera and what lighting?

With plate only set up your shots so you are not messing around when the food is ready.

Light, camera, and backdrop make a world of difference.  Outdoor light unless you have a professional studio is the best.

This is just a hack picture and I did not care about the backdrop but this is just a $100 camera and a free editor that only crops and auto contrast.  There is natural light above the sink.  Shoot the picture as fast as possible.  Cut the most delicate stuff last. Have spare garnishes behind to dress up the plate. If it serves with gravy or dressing take some raw shots first.

Your knife skills are very important.  Have a sharp knife and have a plan.

Have a nice cutting board to get some shots before plating.  Plated is much harder. You cannot serve 8 and get a nice fresh photo plate. In the afternoon with natural light make a single serving.

Outside has more natural light. The fog is steam from the warm salad. You have to let food cool for good shots.


Ratio of marrow bones to regular bones to marbled meat?

Marrow bones add a marrow-y flavor. That flavor is very thick and rich, but can taste of innards. Have you ever eaten marrow? (It's delicious, as far as I'm concerned. You can roast and add a touch of salt if you want.) I would say that it sounds like you've got a lot of marrow bones in your stock. That could cause problems, since even a few marrow bones will make the stock fairly greasy. Marrow is almost all fat.

The ox tails have lots of bones in them. They'll give you the deep flavor and gelatin of bones. (Neck bones give you the same thing, as you can see from the picture below.) The only thing marbled meat would have added is extra fat, which isn't necessary for stock -- you'll end up skimming the fat off anyway. You want both the bones and the meat for stock, as you would for chicken stock. It's true that marrow bones are fairly clean, but they're used for a different flavor.

Another option for adding lots of flavor is to add what are known as flanken style ribs. This is short ribs that are cut across the bone. They're also used in Korean Short Ribs. They give you some of that marbled meaty flavor, along with the bones from the ribs.


The answer is anthocyanins, the same that can turn ginger blue and are responsible for purple snap beans and cabbage. The reaction occurs relative to pH and is perfectly safe. Anthocyanins are present in their range of colors in many foods including cabbage, ginger, garlic, and berries. When used as an additive, they have the E number E163.


It'll be because the tonic syrup contains nucleation sites, which are in this case tiny particles from the stuff in the syrup that cause the dissolved gas to come out of solution rapidly. The more nucleation sites, the quicker this will happen. Disturbances in the liquid can also act as nucleation sites - which is why your carbonated drinks foam up when poured, and why stirring/shaking the liquid results in extra bubbles for a short time.
Edited to add: to get rid of the nucleation sites you could try filtering the syrup (I note that this is part of the recipe). This can be as simple as several layers of paper-towels arranged into the shape of a cup and sat inside a funnel, or you could use more expensive pre-made filters(e.g. coffee filters) or scientific grade filter papers/cartridges. If I were you I would use several layers at one time of whatever filter you choose, this will help filter out as much as possible of the detritus, but will slow your filtration rate - be patient.
WARNING: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME; SIGNIFICANT RISK OF BURNS.
If you have no nucleation sites you can retain gasses in liquid quite well. As evidenced by all those people who have heated water in a microwave and then added sugar or something similar (coffee, cocoa) and had it rapidly (and sometimes explosively) boil over. Also known by all those people who have dumped sugar into their soda/pop/fizzy/carbonated drink and seen the massive efflux of bubbles.


Have you tried looking for strawberry compound? The only issue perhaps with cooking the strained strawberry juice is that the flavour might become less intense! This could easily be fixed by putting strawberry jam or compound inside the macaron alongside whatever other filling you are going to put in it.

Strawberry compound is awesome, a ton of flavour in a very small amount, so it is perfect for applications where you don't necessarily want to incorporate too much additional liquid. But I do think it is a 'specialty' product. I have never seen it in a store (even specialty), you would probably need access to a good supplier or go online. Worth it though.

On second thought, there are usually 'essential oils' or natural flavouring, I am sure there is strawberry - which would be effective to add to your meringue during last whip. Add some food colour as well, and voila!


Use a vacuum pump. People who pour liquid rubber into moulds use a vacuum chamber to get the bubbles out; I've heard of people degassing wine with a vacuum pump (see these youtube videos, for example); I wouldn't know why it wouldn't work for soup.

The question is of course where you get a vacuum pump. If you're doing this in a commercial kitchen I'm sure there are channels where you can get a professional one. For the home cook (like me), one option (inspired by one of those videos) would be to pour it into a wine bottle and then use a wine saver; Vacu Vin is a well known brand. You probably won't want to fill the bottle more than half full, especially if the liquid is very thick; the bubbles in the liquid will expand a lot if you lower the pressure, and it will raise the level of the liquid.


Salmon turned green - is it safe to eat?

I would strongly recommend against consuming this fish.
In general you should cook fresh fish on the same day you bought it and not store cooked fish in the fridge for longer than a maximum of two days. Changes in colour, smell or texture are commonly a strong indicator that the fish has gone bad and eating it comes with a risk of a scombroid food poisoning.


Do alcohol and salt help in preservation of dehydrated vegetables?

I don't understand what you are trying to achieve here.

Food, or at least vegetables, is spoiled by bacteria (sometimes also mould). Bacteria need quite a few factors to maintain homeostasis and live. They can't live if 1) a toxin is present, or 2) their living conditions are not met.

When you preserve food, you remove one of the conditions bacteria need to live. In the case of dehydrated vegetables, you remove the water needed for all the biological processes in their cells. From now on, each bacteria which falls onto your vegetable will die without multiplying. You will never get a bacterial colony on your dehydrated vegetables.

Pickling vegetables is another preservation method. You can use for example a salty brine. At sufficiently high levels, salt is a toxin for every organism. If you want pickled vegetables, you can put them in a brine with sufficient salt levels and keep them there. Again, any bacteria which fall in there will die.

Using both at once on the same vegetable is useless. You have no bacteria living on it any more - you don't need a second way to kill them. Putting salt on dehydrated vegetables is like putting rat poison on the moon - it doesn't reduce the rat population, because it started out with zero rats.

Food safety wise, dehydrated vegetables will last forever (and if they don't, you didn't dehydrate them properly) - so why would you want to extend their shelf life?

If you don't want to eat ancient dehydrated vegetables, this is probably because of their taste. They are not unsafe, the aromatics in them have decomposed with time. This is also a kind of "shelf life" - but it gets shortened, not prolonged, by adding prodigious amounts of salt, alcohol, sugar or other preservatives. With them, your vegetables taste worse from the start.


Does food cooked in firewood taste different than that which is cooked in gas?

"Taste better" is entirely opinion based and unanswerable with anything but opinion.

As to does it taste different, absolute.  How different depends on application and technique.  Different woods taste and cook differently.  Some have high resin, some a harsh smoke, some a more gentle smoke.  They burn at different temperatures and different moisture.  Some may have toxins in there smoke.  One would not use a green oily wood and expect something palatable.  Smoking food is its own artform and people spend a lot of time trying  to match correct woods to specific applications and even that is largely opinion.

Left out non-proteins:  Certainly the same rules apply and it remains a matter of taste.  Some foods grab more of the potential flavors, some less.    One is not even limited to solids as soups could be done too.  As bob1 points out, there are ways to reduce the differences in taste, like making sure the wood is burned down to coals with no visible smoke.  I would also say you would want heat to be indirect and you may still have issues with differences in humidity, but you can certainly get at least close to oven flavors or the flavor of a gas grill if that is your goal.


What can be used to thicken chili other than masa harina?

There are several ways you can thicken Chili than adding Masa Harina:

Add another thickening agent: flour and cornstarch are both widely used, you can also try other flours like graham flour, chickpea flour, or arrowroot. Note that if you use flour you'll want to fry it in oil or butter or risk a raw flour taste in the dish
Add refried beans: this adds thickening and a richness. It does dilute the spices some so you'll want to make the chili more powerful to compensate
Cook it down: Why add a thickener when simply simmering with the lid off will do it for you? It takes some time (an hour or so depending on the water content of the ingredients you add), but it will concentrate the flavors and give you a nice, thick chili without any additional ingredients at all


I'll take a shot at answering, but unfortunately I don't think you can just harden your caramel directly. The candy stages are what they are, as I'm sure you're aware. The soft crack stage, between 270-290 F is where your sugar will become solid, but still be a bit pliable. It will bend slightly before it breaks. Depending on the exact shape your making, and how much weight it will be supporting, how long you need it to last, etc, you may consider only cooking your sugar to soft crack, instead of to the hard crack or caramel stage.

Past 290F, you're approaching hard crack. The sugar will be even harder than before, but will become more brittle. You know that toffee is cooked to 300 F. As you get past 300 F and actually caramelize the sugar it will become increasingly brittle.

If you want less fragility, but still want the color and flavor of caramelized sugar, you could caramelize the sugar initially, add water (carefully. Use a big pan and make sure you stand back) then cook again until it's only at soft crack or the earlier stages of hard crack.

I tried looking into different sugar substitutes to see if they have different properties when melted and re crystallized, but unfortunately I couldn't find anything. I've seen isomalt used to make edible hair, but I haven't worked with it personally, so I can't say if that's an avenue worth exploring.

The only other option I can really think of is to change the material. Does it have to be pure caramel? Could you use chocolate or make some kind of nut flour based candy? Or even using toffee instead of pure caramel? I acknowledge those suggestions are basically ways to make an inherently thicker substance, which would not set clear, or allow for fine details or delicate strands of sugar magic.

Lace cookies (basically toffee with nut flour) come to mind as being thin and pretty/delicate, but having enough strength to make a small cookie sandwich with.

Hopefully, this is some help.


How long do "quick" pickles last unrefrigerated?

When I make quick pickles, I leave them out for a few days (~3-5 days) to get sour before storing them in the fridge. I use a standard, diluted white vinegar solution for mine. If you're using 100% vinegar, you should be fine keeping them out for at least 3-5 days. Vinegar is very inhospitable to pathogens (just make sure that the pickles are completely submerged). Good luck!


Oven cleaner will take that right off. If you're sensitive to nasty harmful fumes you can get the fume free kind.

Make sure you follow the manufacturer's instructions to the letter, and make sure no kids or pets are around.


Using the meat juices from cooking is a jus :) adding wine along with the aromatics might change it to be a "red wine jus" or I've also seen a "port jus", or the jus could be used in a Madeira sauce, etc.

  served in the natural juices that flow from the meat as it cooks.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/au%20jus


Will heat cause a silicone scraper to harden?

First, you need to be sure that the scraper or spatula you are using is heat resistant and suitable for cooking.

Assuming it is, heat should not make the silicone hard over time. I have several that I have been using almost daily for over ten years. They are as flexible today as when they were new.


I don't see anything that has grown there, except for the starter itself. The starter used to be more expanded, its skin dried up in the expanded state, then it fell back down and the skin tore in places and wrinkled up - this is what you are probably picturing as a growth. It also trapped some gas bubbles (the round warts). There also seems to be a layer of hooch formed under the skin. Where the skin is torn, a single untrapped bubble is also visible at roughly (45°, 0.2r).
If you had actually had a mold growing, I would have advised against baking with the starter, because it is unsafe, even if the bread rises.


Safety of old, unopened bottles of ketchup

Assuming that there are no apparent problems with it (either from storage method or upon opening and inspection), I am one to agree with StillTasty in this case and say that you would not likely encounter any problems making barbecue sauce. They say twelve months, though.

For the sauce though, not only will the long, slow boiling help; but the ketchup is likely chock full of high-fructose corn syrup (which acts as a preservative), and you will be suspending more sugar (again, a preservative) in it.


Making how much batter will result in over-mixing?

The amount is only restricted by the capacity of the tools you have at hand.  The point is, don't mix too much.  If you have a bowl, filled to the brim, you will have to mix a lot more to get all of the ingredients incorporated.  If that same bowl is half full, a few quick strokes is all it takes to mix. Over-mixing risks building the gluten structure too much, which results in a "tougher", less light, final product. Bakeries, restaurants, and catering services probably do more at once than most people do at home...it is just that they have larger capacity tools.


How to remove individual steaks from a lump I mistakenly froze together?

Your best bet for preserving quality (and safety) is to re-seal the bag, then leave them in the fridge for a bit. You want them to thaw a little, so you can pry them apart. Its safe to re-freeze after this (as the meat never entered the danger zone, indeed it probably never got above ~30°F). There will be some quality loss from the partial thaw-freeze cycle. I recommend waiting to do this until you'll be cooking at least one of the steaks.

Now, how to freeze them:

Freezing in vacuum bags isn't special. Just like with freezing in ziplock bags, freezer paper, foil, etc., you need to freeze individual servings individually. If you want to economize on vacuum bags, you can try one of:

Wrap the steaks in plastic wrap or freezer paper to freeze. Once frozen, transfer to vacuum bag and draw vacuum.
Place two steaks in the bag next to each other, separated by ~1in (depending on thickness of steak, you want the bag to be able to conform to the shape of the steak). If you're using an external vacuum machine like a FoodSaver (as opposed to a $600+ chamber machine), the steaks may be pulled together as it sucks out the air; press your finger down on the plastic between them to keep them apart.
Separate steaks with freezer, parchment, or waxed paper (you can try plastic wrap, but they may freeze together anyway...) in one bag. You can stack them on top of each other, or put the immediately next to each other (without the 1in space), or both. Freeze after sucking air out.

There is a disadvantage to stacking things thicker to freeze (as in the last suggestion): generally speaking, the faster you freeze something, the more quality is retained. And of course the thicker it is, the longer it takes to freeze through.

If you're cutting from rolls, remember that each time you open and re-seal the bag, you're going to cut off an inch or so of plastic, depending on your vacuum machine. Cut the bag big enough to accommodate this.


What is the key to a shiny crumb in bread?

I don't know the theory behind it, but I have some guesses because I sometimes get it and sometimes don't. I usually get this effect with very developed gluten. And by that I don't just mean a large amount of gluten, it is entirely possible with non-bread flour. I suspect well hydrated starch may be part of it too. So, try recipes with longer rising times, for example a no-knead recipe.

I am not saying that no-knead is the only way, but so far, it is the method which has been most consistent in creating it for me. So, it is worth getting it to work that way, before you start experimenting with others. Also, I can't remember if I have had it with darker flours, but I agree with the comments, white flour is most likely to behave well, and should be your starting point.


What can I substitute for Kaffir Lime Leaves?

I wouldn't attempt to substitute. I've read somewhere that you can use regular lime leaves, but I've never seen those anywhere. Even Googling for lime leaf turns up kaffir lime leaves.

They can be found easily enough online: ImportFood.com. They freeze well for months in just a zip-lock bag.

The flavor profile is best described as a bright floral aromatic. It's similar in function, not taste, to a bay leaf. Thai cuisine uses kaffir lime leaves much as we do bay leaves.

If you decide buying online isn't worth the hassle, then Kitchen Savvy suggests the following substitute:

1/2 a small bay leaf
1/4 tsp of lime zest
1/8 tsp of fresh lemon thyme


Substitution for marjoram in beef birria

Oregano is the closest herb, though distinct, as the two plants are related.


Skipping the microwave step works, I suppose the author of the recipe used the microwave to save time. If you decide to roast the beets directly, keep the following differences in mind:

Time
Roasting beets in the oven takes significantly longer than parboiling in the microwave. I can't say how long slices take (depends on thickness), but whole beets need 60 to 90 minutes, depending on size. Same reason why some cooks parboil their baked potatoes, then finish them in the oven.
Taste
Roasting beets in the oven will caramelize the sugars in them, making them noticably sweeter than just cooked beets. The long roast will also bring out other flavour components.
Texture
Roasting slices in the oven will likely dry them out somewhat. (I personally would go for wedges, but that's my choice) You either have to live with that or take counter-meassures like covering the dish, adding liquid or oiling the slices.

In short, yes you can skip the microwave step.


What device to use to chop/dice tomatoes?

Working as a cook myself... unless you really like chunky I would go with a blender. Issue with a blender about half the tomatoes will be a purree before you get rid of all the big chunks and if you start cutting up the tomatoes it wont take all that much longer just to dice em..

Blender quick but half will be a purree ?
Dicing  all of it will be nice even dice but takes longer.
Which is more important nice and chunky or speed?


Oddly enough, a little SALT might help. Salt has the effect of blocking some sour receptors in the tongue while enhancing sweetness.


My best guess is you are probably over mixing the batter. When you over mix, gluten networks develop leading to a denser and chewier texture.

You should mix the batter until "just combined" which just means until you can no longer see the ingredient you just added.

http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2014/05/what-happens-when-you-overmix-cake-batter.html


Hello Martin and welcome to Seasoned Advice! Here is a link to an  online cookbook . A book, The Art of UZBEK cooking by Lynn Visson is available on Amazon. If you perform a Google search there are many available sources.


Blending pineapples and coconuts whole, safety and experience?

Clearly, the Blendtec, "will it blend" videos, are a marketing tool designed to illustrate the power of the product, as opposed to illustrating recipes for delicious smoothies.  Is it safe to drink?  There is nothing here: http://www.coconutresearchcenter.org/ that I have been able to find, which deems the "woody part" inedible or unsafe.  So, strictly speaking, that concoction is probably safe to drink (but I am no expert on coconut shells or pineapple leaves).  The more important question is, why would you want to?  I imagine the shell of the coconut and the outside of the pineapple would add bitterness and grassy flavors that would be off putting, plus, who wants to drink something that looks like that?  I further imagine the texture would be somewhat uncomfortable to swallow. It just doesn't look appetizing.  One of your tags is "efficiency."  There are reasons that we peel our fruits and veggies, even though it may be less convenient.  Safety may be one reason (maybe concern over pesticides?), but more often it is flavor and color that we are after.


How do I wrap a spring-form pan in foil so it doesn't leak when I bake in a water bath?

Cook's Illustrated recently discovered that placing the springform pan inside a slightly larger cake pan works. The slight air gap doesn't negate the water bath's benefits. And of course a cake pan is a solid piece of aluminum, thus completely water tight.

(Haven't personally tested this yet.)


Is there some sort of gun (or a way) to decorate cookies with chocolate chips or nuts?

It very much depends on the scale you desire.

Industrial Scale

From my quick youtube research, it seems like most commercial cooking making machines use an extrusion approach and are focused on dough deposition. Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-R9nYHNTAE.

A machine like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP6WuXUKK_M, is the most promising that I have found. There is probably some clever mechanism that could, instead of punching out the middle of the cookies, deposit a chocolate chip or nut.

Personal Scale

This is harder, because of the inherent variability in environment and types of use. I doubt something already exists/haven't been able to find it. However, I have a couple of preliminary ideas. You need several parts:

hopper to hold chips/nuts
mechanism to deposit/press chip or nut into the dough
barrel or something similar to connect the two parts.

Airsoft or paintball guns have hoppers that deal with similar style objects and are designed for handheld use. You could start by researching loading mechanisms for these guns.

The hardest part is designing the mechanism that will actually press the chip into the cookie, because of the delicate nature of the operation.

If you wish to discuss this further, feel free to contact me using the information on my profile.


Yes! You can use Calcium Chloride to keep your pickles nice and crunchy! I have used Pickle Crisp. I've have had pretty good results. I have also just used generic food grade Calcium Chloride, which I also use in cheese making.(I order this online through my cheese making supplier).

The best tip for crunchy pickles is to avoid over cooking them at high temperatures. I use a thermometer in my hot water bath, to ensure that I do not go over 185 to 190F at which time the cucumber starts to break down. I know, I know people get so upset that I don't "boil" it, but I maintain the temperature for slightly longer at lower temps to achieve the same safety. I've never had a problem and if the ph is acidic enough it shouldn't be a problem. If you feel concerned with safety you can always make them as refrigerator pickles. Which I do sometimes.

I'm not sure of the process you are using, but I do pack the raw cukes into the jars, and fill the jar up with hot brine that was previous boiled. The Calcium Chloride goes into this brine.

P.S. You can buy calcium chloride in both dry form and liquid form. I prefer the liquid form. Hope this helps!


How long is it okay to marinate pork ribs for?

This is totally okay to do and will help flavour your ribs deeply. 48 hours is the max I would marinate for personally. If you're really skeptical about it, you should be fine to keep your unmarinated ribs in the fridge until you're ready to marinate them.


Frozen eggs in the shell: thaw and cook or trash them?

Yes you can thaw frozen eggs and cook them, the only thing is that the consistency will change and the yolk tends to get lumpy. I wouldn't recommend trying to bake with them but they'll make fine scrambled eggs.


I forgot the chicken out on the counter-top all night. How do I dispose of it?

You dispose of it like you would with any other meat-based remains that are unfit for human consumption.

Depending on your local trash system that may mean anything from throwing it out of the window to wrapping it up and putting it in a specific trash or recycling container. Your local waste management company or municipal office can give you better advice than we can.

What I wouldn't recommend though is throwing it on your compost heap - it might invite various animal life forms that you do not want near your house and the smell is quite pungent after a while.


How do I impart "extra" flavor with Sous Vide cooking?

Sous vide not only keeps the proteins (main component) at a lower temperature, but also the spices/oils/flavorings. Heat helps release the taste and aroma of all the ingredients, and the sous vide might not be hot enough to do that.

So, while it kind of kills the simplicity, you could always sautee the seasonings in oil before adding them to the sous vide bag (not until cooler though). Or just keep them separate and recombine for serving.  Sous vide itself (not the vacuum part) is mainly for maintaining/achieving a controlled internal temperature, and skilled cooks don't only sous vide a dish; they might sous vide and then finish under a broiler for texture, or with a torch. If the sauce isn't working inside the bag, make it work outside the bag.

Alternately, put the ingredients in the bag the day before, and let them marinate overnight in the fridge.  The vacuum action is essentially just a speeded up marinade, so this should do the same.

Also, make sure you're using enough (but not too much) SALT.

Finally, call the Sous Vide Supreme company.  They know their product's capabilities and limitations and might have some good recommendations.

Just my guesses.


Roasted veg/squash soup is one of my goto summertime soups. I roast the veg on the grill and combine it in the blender with some stock made during the spring. Heat in cast iron on the grill side burner to keep the kitchen cooler.


Most fair sized Asian markets carry boxes of powdered coconut milk/cream. The shelf life on these products is generally quite good, and allow you to make just the amount (and strength) of coconut milk you want by simply adding water.


Actually, you can make an emulsion using just garlic and olive oil! It's a very old spanish recipe traditionally done by hand taking mind numbing time.

Seeing that you want to achieve thickness using your existing ingredients (no cheating with emulsifiers) here is a suggestion that should work (i haven't done it, just seen it done).

Pay attention to the freshness of the garlics.  I believe the garlic oil may be a key here. So choose freshest garlic and don't go short.
Hold all of the oil for now and most of the vinegar, but enough vinegar so your mixer grabs and starts (you should have all garlic, and a bit of vinegar)
Run your mixer and add oil one drop at a time.
As the mixture thickens you can add more vinegar and more oil.  Lead with the vinegar as you're emulsion phase is oil in garlic/vinegar not the other way around.

It's possible that 1/20 time you immerse the blender into the vinegar first and pull in the oil slowly as opposed to whipping the oil and trying to bring garlic vinegar in.  If you're going for the fast method as you've been, pay attention to your initial blender depth and how much oil is trapped under the cap.

Let us know how you make out!


Should lemongrass be edible or just a flavoring?

If you actually chop it finely, you should be okay. Specifically, you should cut it into thin disks against the grain first, so that you're cutting the fibers into short enough lengths not to bother you. Depending on how tough your lemongrass is, you may have to remove some outer layers to do this.

At that point, it may already be possible to chew, but further chopping should make sure of it. If the pieces are small enough, there isn't really anything to chew, and it's not too likely to stick in your mouth given that it's mixed in with plenty of other stuff in the dish.

That said, there's some variation in the toughness, and it does take a reasonably sharp knife to do this if the lemongrass is on the tough side, to the point that it might not be possible. So if you have issues chopping it finely (or too little of the stalk is tender enough to do so), falling back to your usual approach of infusing it into things is the way to go.


What does make ice cream smooth and silky?

A number of factors come together to determine the smoothness of ice cream, which is almost exclusively a product of the size of ice crystal within the finished ice cream.

How fast the mix is frozen--the faster it is frozen, the smaller the crystals
Emulsifiers or stabilizers which interfere with ice crystal growth

The amount of milkfat is actually not that important; it contributes to richness on the tongue and mouthfeel, but does not really reduce the graininess.

The single best thing you can do to ensure a smooth product is to use an ice cream maker which freezes the mix as rapidly as possible, preferably within 20 minutes at the slowest.  The slower the freeze, the larger the ice crystals grow, and when they are large enough, they will feel gritty or grainy on the tongue.

One of the best ways to help your mix freeze quickly is to chill it thoroughly in the refrigerator, over night if you can.  This will have the side benefit of improving the flavor of your ice cream.

Adding so-called stabilizers or emulsifiers which interfere with crystal formation will also help.  While some of these have scary names like xantham gum, guar gum, or agar, many come from natural sources.  The most common emulsifier of all is common egg yolks.

Making a French style ice cream, whose base is a (very thin) egg custard or creme anglais will help you get a smoother, richer texture.  Of course, it will also contribute a custardy, eggy flavor which may or may not be desirable depending on your preferences.


Cooking and keeping food warm while traveling?

Because electric vehicles don't rely on combustion to create energy, there is no waste heat generated that can be diverted to the passenger compartment.
I've never driven a modern electric vehicle (although I did help build one that took first place in the 1995 World Solar-Car Rally and 4th in the 1995 GM Sunrayce), but my understanding is that they use electric heating, which will decrease your maximum distance.
In addition, battery packs can be discharged deeper when warmed, and so you'll lose range from that, as well.  Consumer Reports recommends pre-heating your vehicle while it's still plugged into wall power if your vehicle can do that.
I would instead recommend looking at other questions about keping food warm while traveling:

How can I keep hot food hot when transporting it?
Low tech strategies for keeping food warm
How to keep fried fish warm and crispy during transport to venue?
How to keep my pizza hot and crispy during transport


How hot does popcorn need to be before it pops?

Some kernels would pop, but generally speaking it would not work very well at all. A popcorn kernel pops because of the water trapped inside -- it is heated rapidly on the stove, and its expansion is rapid enough to produce explosive force. The oven would cause the water inside the kernels to heat more slowly. The shell of unpopped corn is not perfectly enclosed, so slow heating would allow the water vapor to harmlessly escape.


Simple tomato sauces (type "coulis") often separate, as fresh tomatos contain a lot of water. We've had it with such sauces prepared for freezing, and used the sauce as a basis, which worked perfectly well.

You can recook it, but depending on how much liquid there is, that can require a lot of time: you'll have to evaporate must of the (separated) liquid. The taste will change (more 'caramelised', 'cooked' taste): longer cooking and higher temperatures at the end due to the higher concentration of dissolved matter.
Or you can skim off the liquid that separated.

To be safe, in both cases you'll have to sterilise your sauce again using the full cooking time.

But why bother recooking it if the taste was correct: such separation is perfectly normal in sauces that are not very concentrated and commercial tomato sauces have additives to avoid this separation (added ingredients like carrots help, and so does some starch, and there are others, look at the bottle). And if you use the sauce as a basis, you might cook it again at that stage.

The above assumes you did cook the sauce according to instruction regarding conservation (so long enough to sterilise the sauce correctly).


Is there a brand of salsa I can cook with that doesn't contain seeds?

I wouldn't trust any store brand to omit seeds entirely; it's just not going to be a priority for them.
I'd suggest making your own instead.  It's fairly easy and fast to seed tomatoes using a chinois, and to seed peppers using a knife.  And it'll taste better, too!


Best knives that don't need regular sharpening

Ceramic knives will hold their edge 'forever', but are brittle. As long as they don't fall, they should be fine.

I googled "ergonomic ceramic knife" and a number of items popped up.


Why does my meat never thaw in the fridge?

The difference between cold and frozen where a refrigerator is concerned is actually only a few Kelvin (or "degrees").

The standard refrigerator will have warmer and colder zones, typically the top shelf being warmer, the bottom shelf above the veggie drawer cooler. Likewise the back is usually cooler than the front. The temperature you set it to is an  average value. (Check your manual for your model.) In mine, anything on the back of the lowest shelf can, on occasion, be slightly frozen, but I have set it to 4 C.

Also, thermostats in kitchen appliences can easily be off by a few degrees. We have discussed this for ovens here on the site often enough, the same is true for fridges and freezers. A calibrated thermometer can tell you more.

So once you have made sure that your meat actually can thaw by putting it on the top shelf and adjusting the temperature setting, it's all about patience. The time it takes for a piece of meat varies greatly and for a big "lump" like a whole roast, defrosting overnight won't happen. Prominent example: Around Thanksgiving the defrosting times for turkey are discussed all over the web and plenty of anecdotes told about cooks forgetting that it may take days for a large bird...

That's one of the reasons why it's generally recommended to freeze food in smaller, especially flatter packages where possible (e.g. steak or chicken breasts side by side, not on top of each other): It freezes faster (-> food safety) and thaws faster (-> convenience).


Tumeric has a distinct flavor, as does cocoa.  These will color your cookies, but also flavor them.  If you don't want these flavors, you have to seek out flavorless food coloring.


It's absolutely safe, and many professional cooks do this sort of thing all the time. Check out the ordinances for your local health department— some require a variance for using time rather than temperature as a food safety measure– but most are fine with par cooked meats being in the danger zone, usually defined as 40 to 140, for up to 2 hours if they get thrown out right away. If you par fry and cool the fish, then you should be bacteriologically safe for much longer, but it would probably be of pretty poor quality when you fried it. Nobody wants to eat an oil sponge. Keeping your oil temp up will help you keep it less greasy.

  The Danger Zone... This refers to the range of temperatures at which bacteria can grow - usually between 40° and 140° F (4° and 60° C). For food safety, keep food below or above the "danger zone." Remember the 2-Hour Rule: Discard any perishables (foods that can spoil or become contaminated by bacteria if unrefrigerated) left out at room temperature for longer than two hours. When temperatures are above 90° F (32° C), discard food after one hour.

Though it varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, that 2 hour period usually starts over when the food is brought back up to finishing temperature... so if you par cooked it, held it for almost two hours and nobody got it, you could bring it up to temperature and then have another two complete hours to do something with it, or cool it and store it. Not sure what good prefried fish would be though.

You could avoid this whole thing if you had the extra time on hand for someone to butterfly the cuts so you could just fry them quickly to order.


Can I add cocoa to chocolate to approximate a higher % of cacao?

Sure, you can add cocoa - but think of it as adding it to the brownies, not to the chocolate. And the thing to worry about isn't extra weight, but rather whether you're adding enough dry cocoa to upset the dry/water balance in the recipe. With only 10g and something flexible like brownies, it should be fine, but you'd have to be more careful with larger amounts or more sensitive baked goods like cookies.


I recommend this juicer I have it and use it every week to make lemonade:

Peel 6-8 lemons

Add to juicer

Mixing in a large pitcher, add water and sugar to taste.

Refrigerate

It's absolutely delicious. It's all I drink, no more soda.

Last week I made cherry juice. De-pitted the cherries and repeted the same steps as above.

I've also made carrot and beet juice, but they test very strong and work better when you mix them with other juices - orange juice for example.

My experience with juicing grapefruit is not good. The juice comes out very bitter and tastes very strong.

In general, to reduce the bitterness in citrus juices, peel the fruit first before adding it to the juicer. As in the lemonade example, I sometimes use the lemon peels to make Limoncello, or keep a few in the fridge to garnish my coffee. If you have no use for them, they will at least make your garbage smell very good.

Maintenance

You need to clean the juicer after each use, which can be discouraging. If you have someone who lives with you, have them help. My husband peels and juices the lemons, I wash the juicer parts while he mixes the lemonade in the pitcher. It takes us about 15 minutes from start to finish.

Experiment

You can throw anything in the juicer as long as you remove large pits and cut it to a size that fits the opening. It will fit a whole lemon but you need to halve an apple.
The juicer  - at least the model I have - also comes with a recipe book. Not that I ever used it. I just use whatever I have left over and try to make something tasty.


Difference between yellow and gray bacalao (salted cod)?

According to the Norwegian Cod lobby, a grey-blue cast indicates that the cod was caught in the deep sea, as opposed to cod caught in shallower, warmer waters.  Presumably the deep-sea cod tastes better.  Based on my own experience, salt cod which is too old or poorly stored will also turn yellowish.  For example, the supermarket cod in the little wooden box, which is insufficiently dried and salted, is often yellowish with ageing.  Again, based on my experience, this cod is noticeably inferior to the cod I used to get in the Sao Paulo Mercado Municipal, which was snow-white in color.

That said, if the yellowish stuff is all you can get, it's better than no salt cod.


What's the better substitute for Shaoxing wine?

I think mirin is going to be sweeter than shaoxing wine. This link however has much more information about shaoxing wine, and they say that a Japanese sake, sherry, or even a white wine could be substituted depending on context.

This is outside the scope of the question, but have you checked Uwajimaya?


Is there a secret to flavouring with herbs

If you're adding inordinate amounts of herbs with no effect, then that sounds to me like a problem with the herbs themselves.  If you're using dried herbs, they could just be too old.

To me, dried basil and oregano and marjoram just never taste like much. Fresh, however, they're quite strong. Tarragon, chervil, and dill, on the other hand, do "work" in dried form, and in fact you have to be careful with tarragon. I guess I'd put rosemary in that category too but thanks to some out-of-control plants I've got more fresh rosemary than I could ever possibly use cooking for an army.


Is not using soap when washing cast iron pans safe?

That residual fat is leftover from what you cooked in there before, so it would only be an issue after cooking something with a very low smoke point, washing the pan,  then cooking something with a high smoke point.

Wiping the pan with a paper towel will get rid of the vast majority of this, and if you dry it over heat you can carry on to cook off the last little bit, like a sort of half-baked or top-up seasoning. Doing this before storage gives the smoke smell time to clear before you next use it, but this should be minimal if you cook it off gently. I recommend turning on the cooker hood extractor if you have one.

I like the heat-retention of cast iron but I've gone over to enamelled (le Creuset). I still use a carbon steel wok that needs reseasoning after using the traditional metal spatula, so I actually rinse, dry with heat, wipe over with oil and heat.


Can I use hot water for skim milk powder?

I always use hot water and it has worked fine. In fact i find milk powder dissolves quickly in hot water than cold.


What is the temperature of the massive pots of water at hotels for cooking 10 poached eggs at once?

In scale operations, a large 'rondo' is usually used, and as the comments above indicate it is at 'simmer' which is essentially 212 F / 100 C. A small amount of vinegar is added to the water, which helps the loose parts of the egg white coagulate and gives a nicer shape to the poached egg.

Since the kitchen you describe has glass walls, they are taking extra care for the showmanship part of the operation, having eggs in individual cups to drop in the poaching vessel.

A large vessel is used to reduce the temperature rebound of adding the cold (maybe close to room temp) eggs. As each is added, it does not significantly reduce the temperature of the rest of the water in the large pot.

The fact that the water was clear means the station cooks are under directions to continually add vinegar and skim the water. After each egg, some bits come off that have to be cleared out. If the kitchen did not have glass walls, the water would not be that clear during a busy brunch !


I would suggest heating some fresh rosemary in the bacon fat. Then discard the rosemary.  You will get the flavor without the part you don't want.


What would happen with food stored in a sterile environment?

You would need to use fancy pressure canning techniques to get the entire contents of your container up to the temperatures required to kill botulism spores (et al?) that could begin to thrive later in the anaerobic environment inside. But given that prerequisite, what you describe sounds like the canned meat products that you find in the grocery store. You can certainly find canned cooked chicken meat there (near the canned cooked tuna in supermarkets near me).

As for a whole canned chicken, no, I don't see that in my area. Maybe the effort required to achieve this isn't cost effective for the consumer market. Doing it at home as you describe doesn't seem worth the trouble to me. Perhaps NASA is working on it.


How can I use white pepper without having the odor dominate the food flavour?

It's interesting that this is your experience, since "common knowledge" is the white pepper is milder than black.  White pepper is the dried ripe fruit of the pepper Piper Nigrum, and the black is the unripe, cured and dried fruit.  Black is usually hotter than white, but generally they are considered to be interchangeable, with the white being used in sauces and in cream dishes for a better look (no black specks).

Since this pepper is so strong for some reason, I would advise that you only use it in dishes that rely on the pepper flavor to the exclusion of others, say steak au poivre, or pepper pot, or salt and pepper scallops.

Other than that you can cut back on the amount or grind it now and let it sit around for a while...pepper has its strongest, best flavor when freshly ground; it kills me to suggest that, but I'm trying to answer your question.

If it were mine, I would try to figure out a dish that this pepper would truly enhance, as I suggested.


I'd think that adding a bit more flour to the mix would help them be thicker. The trouble is exactly how much. When I learned how to make creme brulee it took me at least a dozen attempts to get it perfect but once I figured it out it has stuck with me.


Refrigerating warm potato salad 13 hours after dinner

Throw it away! Warm potato salad is a breeding ground for all sorts of food-borne illnesses, and 13+ hours is far too long at room temperature.


What are things to look for when choosing a raw cut of Steak?

A few things:

grain fed vs corn fed vs grass fed.
Each style lends their own flavour to
the beef.

free range vs. feedlot. Cows fattened on feedlots will have more
fat; the meat of free-range cows has
a deeper flavour. Feedlot cows will
also be more tender.
'Organic' (a word with no meaning really) vs non. Some chefs are
concerned with antibiotic and
hormonal treatment of cows;
generally speaking, something labeled 'organic' is less likely to
have been chemically treated while
alive.
marbling, the degree of intramuscular fat. More marbling =
more flavour. Bear in mind of course
that some cuts (e.g. tenderloin) have
very little intramuscular fat.
aged or not, and wet vs. dry. Aging meat allows lactic acid to denature
proteins and increase flavour. Dry
aging is significantly better for
this than wet. However, that comes at
a cost, as dry-aged meats must be
trimmed, resulting in a lower yield
per initial pound of product.


You definitely want to keep beans whole as long as possible. Ideally, grind just the amount you need right before you brew the coffee. Keep the whole beans airtight, and freezing probably isn't necessary unless you buy a month of beans in advance.


Look in the oven. Smell the oven. Turn the oven (and exhaust fan, if any) on to the maximum temperature. If you smell nothing untoward (there might be some "normal" smallish amount of smoke/burnt smell when you fire it up hot for a while) it's fine.

If it smells like rodent urine, or you see rodent scat, you might have a problem, and firing it up might smell very bad and/or cause rodents to come running out of the insulation. Other than that, most issues of disuse will be cured by heating it throughly, once.

Since few, if any baked items come into direct contact with the oven (most are in a pan on a rack) there's no health/safety difference between a shiny clean oven and a fairly filthy-looking oven. Most oven cleaning chemicals are far scarier than what's baked on the oven; and all self-cleaning ovens need is to be run hot enough to burn off whatever is on them.


How to prevent tofu from falling apart on the grill?

Standard tips for browning/frying/grilling tofu;

Ensure that you press the tofu sufficiently to remove its own moisture, marinate if desired
Lightly dust with flour
Brush oil on the grilling surface

The same advice applies for pan frying. I prefer to work at a high temperature, others have had very good results using only medium. Use a very thin, flat metal spatula to turn. Specific to the case of grilling, be mindful of the gap the tofu will stretch across on the grate; it may be crumbling because it isn't strong enough or thick enough to sustain wide gaps.

Additionally you can pre-bake the tofu to dry it out further. I have heard tell that salting lightly with finely ground sea salt helps prevent sticking but have no experience with this, and have had good results without the added sodium.

Typically the moisture in the surface of the bean curd is causing the sticking. Prevent or inhibit this and you should be good.


With what can you maximise energy from an induction stove?

An induction cooktop is already more efficient than a conventional electric range, but there are some "gotchas" due to the way it works. The way an induction heating element works is via magnetic induction (hence the name), which means it's causing electrical currents to flow within the pan itself, which heats the metal (but don't worry, there's no way these currents can shock you). This is a very efficient way to heat the pan, but it requires two things. First, the pan has to be made of a "ferromagnetic" material (which basically means iron or most steels), and second, that the pan bottom be VERY close to the cooktop surface. It's that last part that makes a wok, with its curved bottom, generally unusable with this sort of cooktop. And this also means that copper and aluminum cookware doesn't work well at all, unless you put a disc of iron or steel between the bottom of such cookware and the induction element surface (in which case, that intermediate disc is basically acting as a hot plate).

If you really want to use a wok - and there are certain lots of reasons to - you pretty much have to get a high-BTU gas burner.


Does the nutrition facts label include "packaging"?

In the UK, the nutition information (for tinned fish) is given after draining: Tesco sardines.  This is specified on the packaging.

How well drained is another matter, but there's enough information on the packaging - the drained weight is given as 84g while the contents is 120g, so to achieve the stated nutrition values, you'd need to drain off 36g of oil.

You use the term "nutrition facts", which is used in a few countries (not mine); it's up to the authority that writes the labelling regulations, but whether drained or not should be clearly stated if those regulations are fit for purpose.  If yours aren't labelled sufficiently, look for a simliar product that is, such as the one I've linked.


I believe it depends on the source of the leaves. Kuding can be made from both a wax tree species and a holly species. I do not know about the wax tree, but teas made from holly do contain caffeine (Yerba mate, for example).


Can I add more cream to my thick and ready ganache?

Yes, you can try adding more cream in without hurting anything. However, when cooled it may not mix in very effectively, depending on how thick it already is. If you have trouble you just need to heat it up a bit and it will mix in no problem.
Of course, heating may be a better option than adding cream in making it more workable. If you add cream it will be easier to work with when cold but runnier, if you shape it when warm and it cools it stays where you put it better.


How can you cook multiple omelets without burning them?

I have had the same issue when cooking lots of quesadillas, and have found the following combination of techniques to work quite well.

The obvious answer has been hit upon already, lower the heat. But I think that's missing an important aspect of the issue. What's happening is most likely that you are turning on the heat and then cooking your first omelet before the pan has actually reached temperature. Depending on the type of pan, it can take up to 5 mins for the pan to reach temperature. So, as you continue to cook, the pan is getting closer to temperature. Of course, each time you add more cold egg, the temp decreases again. So your heat is too hot, but it doesn't really become apparent until the last omelet. Rather than just starting at a lower temperature though, start at the same temp you tried and then turn down the temperature as you continue to cook.

The pan can also heat rapidly between omelets. Take the pan off the heat, swirl your butter or oil through it, add the egg, and then put it back on the heat. If it seems really hot when you add the egg, you can cook it for a second with just the radiant heat of the pan before returning to the burner. This will stop the pan from getting too hot between omelets.


I suspect that if you are using egg whites, you won't need to add the lecithin. The egg whites are more than capable of creating a protein-based foam on their own. Using CO2 will give you residual carbonation. I would just use the NO2 (unless you want the foam to be somewhat sparkling). Oh, in fact here is a recipe confirming that just the egg whites are sufficient: http://www.smallscreennetwork.com/video/476/raising_the_bar_how_to_make_foam_for_a_cocktail/


How to bake the Betty Crocker Super Moist White Cake

If you try to break this all up, it's possible that people will try to shut them down as being duplicates.  (and they close to a few others, but I don't think they're true duplicates)

I don't know if a 1.5" high pan would be tall enough.  I've done what you're asking about, but in a 3" high 8" across pan, and it comes up to the top (at least, the dome does).  As an 8" is about 80% of the area of a 9", so I'd expect it to rise to about 2.4".  See How much can I change the height of a cake? and  Correct way to join two halves of sponge cake?

Don't increase the number of egg whites.  You're already adding more water by changing the oil to butter.  (as butter is about 15% water).  Keep the egg whites the same.  See Conversion rule: how to switch oil and butter? and for the inverse, Can vegetable oil be used in place of butter? (which links to lots of others).

You can only get away with it if you're baking them all at the same time, as letting it sit before baking will change the texture.  Of course, that would require having multiple pans, and enough space in your oven to fit them all in without crowding.  (and related : Cakes cooked in same tin but come out different sizes )
But if you're going to be making 4 times the batter, I'd actually recommend making 3 cakes rather than cramming it all into two.  (although, I'd feel better if your pans were 2" high.

Yes, lower the heat to reduce doming.  (also see How do you make a cake lift equally and minimize doming? ).  And you cook them until they're done.  (I will never bake a 14" cake again if I can help it, as even with baking strips and a heat core, the outside was done so much sooner than the inside that I had to turn the oven down so far that it took hours to finish).

...
Oh, and 'super moist' cakes aren't so great for stacking really high.  You typically want a denser cake (eg, pound cake), so the weight of the upper layers don't crush the bottom.  As they end to be dryer, you then pour on some flavored syrup to soak in.
There is a trick for dealing with boxed mixes though -- add a package (one of the smaller boxes) of instant pudding in with the cake mix, without adding any of the stuff that the instant pudding calls for adding.  But it'll change the color of your cake, if you were hoping for snow white.


How long can a bottle of self-made basil sauce last without rotting?

Last summer was a long time ago. The National Center for Food Preservation has this to say about herbs in oil:

  Oils may be flavored with herbs if they are made up for fresh use, stored in the refrigerator and used within 2 to 3 days. There are no canning recommendations. ... Pesto is an uncooked seasoning mixture of herbs, usually including fresh basil, and some oil. It may be frozen for long term storage

Clostridium botulinum is a serious enough hazard with oiled herbs that I'd not trust a dash of lemon juice on top of the oil to protect me from getting sick after 9 months storage. You're much safer freezing the stuff as recommended.  Ice cube trays produce nice pesto cubes that you can store safely in a freezer bag for at least a couple years.


Can I use chestnut roaster clay pot to roast coffee at home?

I believe so. Technically you can use the hood of your car. Rosting coffee (and nuts) is about the heat, not the material. Just keep the heat gentle, give it its 15 minutes or so and don't "french roast" is to death.

And tell how it came out.


What is the term for the "amuse-bouche" at the end of the meal?

I believe you're thinking of "mignardises." This is what they call it on the french laundry menu, and others.

Another possibility is "Petit Fours", which are small pastries typically served at the end of a meal.  I believe there is some overlap in the use of the two terms.


How to thaw a bottle of beer that got frozen accidentally without exploding the bottle

I've had the same experience as you, with beer and other liquids frozen in glass bottles.  Whenever I try to rapidly thaw them, it seems the structure of the glass is compromised in some way and it either explodes or cracks - this even has happened to me when trying to slow thaw, like you did.

Beer bottles, and especially cans, can explode in the freezer and will make an ungodly mess.  Beer bottles exploding in the freezer are rare, but I've heard anecdotal stories from people I trust who said it has happened to them, perhaps with improper bottling and not enough room for expansion in the neck.

Since a few bad experiences with forgetting things in the freezer (I had an aluminum can of Hawaiian Punch literally explode all over the freezer one night, that was a MESS) I now only use the salted ice bath method!

I have tasted beer that was frozen and thawed without any glass shards in it, specifically a can of beer that partially exploded (I guess I didn't learn my lesson from the Hawaiian Punch that quickly).  It had enough left frozen in the bottom of the can that I figured I should thaw what was left, and give it a taste.  It wasn't bad, but it tasted a little...flatter than normal, I guess?  It just wasn't as full flavored as I expected.  Definitely a noticeable difference to me.