Roasting vegetables that have been cut on raw bacon board? Safe or not?

What do you mean by "raw" bacon?
In a lot of with world bacon is only available cured and smoked -- in which case see this question (If you are unsure see that question also. There is some debate about this.).
The bacon itself is probably safe to eat without further cooking, and the peppers certainly.

On the other hand some people in some places (the British(?)) have this thing for unsmoked bacon which is basically just raw meat.
In which case you have contaminated the peppers.
But it doesn't matter because you are cooking them anyway.
And any contaminants are probably not going to have time to multiply, and produce non-heat destructed toxins between last night and when you cook them.
(If not you probably have other problems, like the bacon already being spoiled)


I'm going to assume that you are covering your meat with liquid, because if you aren't that's the problem. Collagen needs heat plus water to break down, if you don't have liquid it will turn tough as old leather.

There is no point where meat gets tougher when being slow cooked, what happens first is that the collagen breaks down, then the proteins start to denature. Generally once the collagen is all broken down is the ideal time to take it out, any longer and the meat itself starts to break down.

Things to remember:

How long it takes for meat to get tender in a braise or slow cook method depends on the size of the cut, thickness of the cut, and the amount of collagen in it. Working cuts like chuck, rump, neck, shin, etc have lots of collagen and need a longer slow cook to break it all down. They also have more flavor. Non-working cuts like filet, sirloin, etc would need much less time, but to be honest you're wasting good money slow cooking cuts like that, roast them instead of grill them as steak! Bigger cuts and thicker cuts will need a longer slow cook as well as it takes longer for the heat and the moisture to get to the center
Some meat will never get tender no matter how you cook them. Low-quality, poorly processed meat that has been frozen and then quick-thawed is likely to be tough as old leather no matter how lovingly you treat it in the pan. It's the GIGO principle, Garbage in-Garbage out, you can't make bad meat good with technique. So it may not be that your meat toughened up after slow cooking, it may be that it never had the potential to be tender in the first place!
Moisture is critical with working cuts as it breaks down collagen, in a slow cooker the meat must be completely submerged in liquid. In the oven it's important to have a lid on your braising dish, or at least tin foil.


What is an optimal way to make tandoori roti and naan in big green egg?

I make naan on my BGE all the time. You can't replicate a tandoor, however, the results are very good. I find it best to cook the naan directly on the grill, and over the coals.  I find lower heat is best.  I either bake them at the end of a grill session, when the heat is dying, or I completely close the bottom vent (leaving the lid open...not just the lid vent). Depending on the heat level, it only takes a minute or two on each side.  I place the rolled out naan on the grill, lightly brush with melted butter, wait for bubbling/puffing, flip, brush with butter, wait for puffing (or peak underneath and look for doneness), then remove to a towel for holding...repeat.


Clarified butter: what happens if the foam isn't skimmed off?

The recipe you linked says that you have to strain the ghee. The solids will be left behind in the cloth. Ghee is a bit more cooked than other forms of clarified butter, I'm not sure if you could use this method without browning the milk solids.


How does preserved lemons salt soultion form a gel?

It is possible that you have precipitated the proteins to some extent by the salt concentration (known in biological fields as "salting out"), which might produce a gel-like blob, just like cooking egg-white does.
You can indeed also precipitate proteins with sugars (e.g. here), though it is more commonly used for extraction of organic acids (e.g. decenoic acid) from fruits etc, it will take quite a bit of experimentation to do this as it usually requires a very high concentration of sugar and quite a high concentration of protein too. You are more likely to get the pectin (which is a polysaccharide) to work, before you get the proteins to precipitate in a sugar solution.


Condensation inside packed, refrigerated food

There is something wrong with your refrigerator, and you need to get it fixed.

Most likely, the temperature inside is rising into the danger zone (>40F), and subsequently falling as the fridge cools. This change in temperature causes the condensation.

In a discussion on ChowHound, there were many potential issues discussed that could be causing your problem. Take a look at my list below and determine how comfortable you are inspecting each issue. If you find one of the problems and can fix it, great.

Most likely, you need to call the manufacturer if the fridge is under warranty, or call an appliance repair specialist to come take a look. Don't wait too long, it's quite possible some of your food is spoiled because of the issue.

Possible problems causing the issue:

bad thermometer inside fridge
door isn't sealing tightly enough
freezer needs to be defrosted
drain is clogged
could be something else entirely


When reducing, why do you simmer instead of boil?

There's another reason for not boiling liquids, besides the possibility of making a mess (boiling over) or ruining it (scorching, etc.).
You actually reduce the amount of flavor by boiling.  As Kenji explains on Serious Eats :

But here's the deal: when simmering, water is not the only thing escaping. Ever notice how when you come home to a pot of sauce simmering on the stovetop or perhaps a beautiful pot roast braising in the oven, your entire home smells of it?
Guess what: if those flavorful aromatic compounds are reaching your nose, it means they are leaving the pot.

So ... if the only goal was to make there be less liquid, boiling's fine.  But if you actually want to concentrate the flavors, you want a slow simmer.
The article also goes into more details about reducing alcohol, and some problems with boiling tomato sauce (which I believe applies to most pectin & other hydrocolloid thickened sauces).


What cooking techniques depend on controlled temperature between 100 and 120 degrees celsius?

There are a couple of places where the ability to get to 120˚C might be useful.

You've already touched on one, which is cooking sugar.  With a range up to 120˚C you get up to the firm ball stage, allowing you to make syrups, fudge, caramel, fondant, butter creams, marshmallows, meringues, and toffees.

You can get some caramelization (mostly of fructose) at that temperature.

I don't know how practical it would be with the machine in question, but you can get Maillard reactions at temperatures that low if you use prolonged cooking time and/or optimize the environment by adding alkaline.

This machine does not seem to have a pressurization feature, but that would be another place where the higher temperature would be useful.  At a pressure of 1 bar/~15 psi above the existing atmospheric pressure, water in a pressure cooker can reach a temperature of up to 121 °C (250 °F), depending on altitude. Pressure cooking can be used to quickly simulate the effects of long braising or simmering.


Where can I find strong sharp tasting olive oil in the US?

Your best source for quality olive oil with strong flavors in the US is going to be a specialty market, either an upscale "gourmet" one, or an ethnic market, such as a Greek, Arabic, Italian, or Turkish market, or even a specialty olive-oil only store.  Farmer's markets can also be a good source of premium olive oil.  Once COVID is over, you can even find markets that will let you taste their olive oils, so that you can pick the one with the degree of pungency you're seeking; many producers create a range.
The bitterness you're talking about is hopefully from oleocanthal and is a sign of quality.  I say "hopefully" because there is a lot of fake virgin olive oils out there, and the wrong kind of bitterness comes from "deodorizing" low-quality oils.  These taste different, but you'd have to try both to recognize it.
You are also right that most Americans don't like pungent or bitter olive oils. That's why the oils you buy in mainstream supermarkets are usually bland, and why you usually need to go outside of them to find better oil.
The fake olive oil problem is why I can't recommend trying to find any high-quality Turkish olive oils here in the the US.  While Turkish producers to create very fine olive oils, overwhelmingly what reaches the US is fake olive oil with Turkish labels, and there are no reliable brands available here I've found.  So I'd recommend getting an oil from Greece, Lebanon, or Israel instead, since all of those countries do have import channels that follow labelling laws and their oils should be fairly similar to Turkish.
This is also why I'm avoiding the term "extra virgin" in this answer.  The US does not enforce conditions on "extra virgin" labelling, so seeing those words on the bottle tells you absolutely nothing.  Instead you need to go by producer and recommendations.


Are sharkfin melon shoots really edible?

According to a number of sources, the shoots are indeed edible, however all references I found were to "young" shoots, so I don't know about the mature vine itself.

The Curious Gardener says

  It's not just the melon that is edible on this plant; the flowers,
  leaves, shoots and seeds are also eaten.

Although the flowers, leaves and shoots are mostly used raw as salad greens,
The Food and Agriculture Organization of The United Nations adds:

  The young stems (called runners), and also the flowers, are eaten
  as a cooked vegetable.

This
North Carolina State University Article lists a number of cucurbits with edible shoots, including Chayote, Bitter Melon and a few types of Gourds.


The glass door on my convection oven broke. Can I still use it?

I wouldn't use the microwave - since you can't be sure which pane of glass is microwave-reflective.

And I'd be concerned about that glass shards working their way loose with thermal stress and falling into the food.


How to remove bitterness of bittergourd?

you can remove bitterness from bitter gourd by using the following tips.
Scrape Off The Rugged Surface.
Remove big seeds Use Salt.
Rub the slices with lots of salt and keep aside for 30 minutes before cooking.
Squeeze The Juice.
Squeeze out the juice from the bitter gourd Use Diluted Yogurt.
Use large amount of tomato it help to dilute the bitterness .


Kansui powder to Kansui liquid (Koon Chun) conversion?

Google gave me this - which I don't feel in any way qualified to elucidate upon…

From Omnivore's Cookbook - Kansui (lye water, alkaline solution, 枧水)

  Homemade kansui

  Making baked baking soda is easy.

  Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (120 C). Line a baking tray with aluminium foil.
  Spread baking soda on the foil and bake for 1 hour. The baking soda will lose about one third of its weight and you’ll gain a stronger
  alkali. Do not touch it with your bare hands. It will cause irritation
  to sensitive skin.
  Transfer baked baking soda to an airtight jar to prevent it from absorbing moisture from the air.
  To make an alkaline solution for mooncakes, add 1 teaspoon baked baking soda to 4 teaspoons water; stir to mix well.

I'd guess that would give you the made up strength.


At which temperature and how long should I cook tilapia on the grill?

Very hot, and until it's done.

I'm not being a smartass here, I'm being serious. When grilling (especially fish), you generally want your grill as hot as possible; you want to promote the Maillard reaction quickly, in order to get nice grill marks.

Tilapia fillets are generally extremely thin. A minute or two per side should do it. The secret with grilling fish is to put it on and then don't touch it. If your grill is properly seasoned and your fish is dry (important! you don't want water here, it will make sticking worse) the fish will pull away from the grill cleanly when it is done on each side.


Perishable food, including raw eggs, is safe in the fridge for a day. So you can do that.

The soda can spend its leavening power though, especially if you also have other ingredients mixed in. The cookies will not have the same texture as freshly made, and it is hard to say how much difference there will be and where on the spectrum is your limit for "acceptable quality". So, you can go ahead and make them, but be aware that you are facing a significant probability of failure.


Properties of potassium carbonate as leavening agent

I've never heard of any preservative effect of potash, the reason it is still used in traditional recipes is the ashy flavor it imparts. That smokiness is not to everyone's taste, baking soda is a perfectly good substitute if you prefer the end result.

You can refrigerate baking soda leavened cookie dough for 3-5 days without issue, it's batters where this would be a problem, but it would be whether you used potash or baking soda. The reason is that any chemical leavening agent starts to react with acid right away and produce carbon dioxide. Refrigeration slows this process, but doesn't stop it - cookies don't need as much leavening so it's not an issue whereas for a cake it's a problem.

Refrigerating a spiced dough for a couple of days is a good step because it lets the flavor of the spices come out and blend. You can achieve the same thing by mixing the spices with the butter and refrigerating the butter for a couple of days instead, the end result is the same from a flavor point of view.


What do you use to measure the weight of ingredient?

This is something that really puzzled me when I went living in an English-speaking country. Having grown up in Italy, where recipes tell you "Put 120g of this then add 250g of that", I've always used a scale. The first time I saw I recipe with cups and teaspoons I said: yeah, but I've got 10 types of cups in the kitchen... which one should I be using?
Then someone told me that they were real unit of measure and introduced me to measuring spoons (something that in Italy would be very difficult to come by).
So, going back to your question:

I strongly second @Adam's opinion of buying a digital scale: they're cheap and do the job (personally, I would not spend more than $30-40 on it, but you can find $300 ones if you wish).

If your recipe calls for teaspoons, cups, etc. then you can:

Buy measuring spoons/cups (you can find a complete set for $10, for instance this)

Convert them to g (or whatever your scale measures) using an online calculator. If you google for "teaspoons to grams" or "cups to grams" you'll find plenty.

You can even get an app on your phone. I use this app which works pretty well (I'm sure there's a similar thing for iPhone, but I don't use Apple products, so I can't help there).


What is the most efficient way to remove kernels from a corn cob?

I have read that if you get a bundt pan (see image below) and stick the cob in the middle hole, and then cut the kernels off as you have been, the pan then catches them quite easily. how to get them off the cob without slicing, though, I really do not know.


Your egg and butter mix has curdled/split you need to put it in a fresh floured bowl and keep mixing till smooth.

The brown is, as you mentioned, the brown sugar. Nothing to worry about.

Personally I wouldn't use melted butter at all. Rather I would use soft butter. Creaming sugar and butter with melted butter is impossible, especially if the butter is melted to the extent where the fat and milk have separated.

Soft bake is soft, like cake. Chewy bake is ... Chewy, like brownies.


What is the difference between a prawn and a shrimp?

Biologically speaking, they are actually different species, but the names are so commonly used interchangeably as to completely muddle the distinctions. For example, spot prawns are actually shrimp while ridgeback shrimp are actually prawns.

Prawns have claws on three of their five pairs of legs, shrimp have claws on two of their five pairs of legs. Their gills and body shape are different too.

As far as cooking them goes, they are virtually identical and interchangeable.

Source


Is it unwise to store oils etc above gas stove/oven?

Yes, it's bad for basically everything.

Oils, of any variety, will go rancid much faster there. It'll be most obvious for the least stable ones, but they'll all go eventually. And if you've ever accidentally cooked something with rancid oil, you'll know, it's not a pleasant surprise.

Anything aromatic will degrade a lot faster too. Even before your olive oil goes rancid, it'll have lost all the nice olive oil flavor. Aromatic vinegars will lose their flavors as well, and the red wine will definitely go faster. And this is why it's also a bad idea to store spices there, though you don't seem to be doing that.

The soy sauce might do okay, since it has stronger flavor and is less dependent on aromatics (it has salt and some umami), but it's probably the only one.

My advice would be to try to find a wall-mounted rack for pans or utensils, and hopefully free up some space elsewhere in the kitchen to store those bottles.


How to cook tarhonya in a pressure cooker or rice cooker

I'm not sure on pressure cooker, since tarhonya (as rice) doesn't take that much time to cook and I usually use pressure cooker on food that needs quite a long time (beef, pork, goulash, ...) when I need to cut this time.

So, how I prepare it, is quite simple - and I must admit I really like tarhonya. You need to have the tarhonya:water ratio 2:3. You need to dry roast tarhonya in hot pot until it gets nice brown (it's pasta really, so when raw it should be very fair beige yellow-y) - just be patient and stir ocassionaly. When the colour is nice brown, add oil (i'd use as many tablespoons of oil as I used cups or tarhonya) and salt, then add the water and put the lid on. When the water boils, lower the temperature and let it cook for about 10-15 mins. You should clearly see little cavities on the surface of tarhonya, that's where the water evaporated through. Take the pot off of the stove, put in on or wrap it in a kitchen towel and let sit for another 20 minutes (without opening the lid).

You should by now have beautiful, brown-y, moist side dish to meat or vegetables or anything, really.

So you can see that use of pressure cooker would be really unncessary and maybe even impossible - but if you discover some way, let me know!


What technique best infuses spices into a dish?

The classic technique for most spices is to roast them. This can be done in a dry pan because the spices cotain their own oils, you just need to make sure that they don't burn. The spices are usually used in the dish from the start so that they have time to infuse, but it is not always the case, for instance there are many dishes which add Garam Masala spice mix towards the end of the cooking although the spices have again usually been roasted before they are used.

Regarding grinding them, again it does vary. Some spices are added whole but will then have to be removed before eating, some spice mixes are ground so they are eaten with the dish. All spices as far as I am aware should be roasted whole though so you would usually roast them and then grind them to produce the spice mix.


The stone requires no seasoning.

To prevent pizza from sticking to it you should dust it liberally with cornmeal before slapping a pizza on it.

A pizza stone will not work well with a frozen pizza. The stone surface will simply be too blazing hot for it. You'll likely burn the bottom while still having a frozen top. There should be little issue with a refrigerated pizza, although I have not tried. However, you will want to be sure to let the pizza reach room temperature before cooking.

Update

Regarding cornmeal. I just realized that you're in the UK, and I'm not sure if you guys have a different term for it than the US. I'm referring to this cornmeal. You should also use the coarsest possible.


How to deal with "no precooking required" lasagne sheets?

They work fine. Here is an example of a vegetarian lasgana where I use them. The key is to make sure that there is plenty of well-seasoned liquid for them to absorb. You don't need to parboil them.


You can pour water and detergent inside, let it sit that way for a day to soften, then clean it by shaking the detergent solution vigorously and then filling it with water and emptying until the water comes out non-soapy. This should work, unless you let it sit for a long time empty, but with the residue of polyunsaturated oils inside. In that case, they can have gummed up.

If the brush problem comes because a straight brush can be stuck inside, but can't reach the nooks and the bottom, you could use a curved brush. These are sold to homebrewers in large sizes, I don't know if they are available for single bottles too.


What are the core differences between strawberry varieties?

I can only answer this for northern europe:
In Europe 'Elsanta' is the variety most grown commercially. Its because it stands up to transportation better then anything else. But its taste is lacking. Given a choise, get something else, even if they look good, which they will.
Grown in Denmark:
Honeyoye - early. taste ok, not great.
Sonata - very good strawberry and its mid season.
Polka - good taste mid season.
Florence - late season. Good taste.

My experience with strawberries is get it locally, always. The great tasting strawberry varieties don't stand up to transportation very well, Its best if they are eaten within hours after picking. If that is not possible I would get strawberries from as cold a climate as possible, because berries in general get more complex flavors if grown under cool condition.


Can I use butter in cookies the same if recipe calls for margarine

Definitely yes, and they will probably taste better. 1:1 substitution.


Beating egg whites over a double boiler for increased leavening?

actually for egg yolks it does the heat help on that, for egg whites they should be at room temperature not cold because at room temperature reaches maximum volume faster than
cold egg whites, and the utensils used like the electric or hand mixer and bowl must not have any trace of grease because fat inhibits the raise process. with taking care of this you will get a good volume of the egg whites, also take into account that if the eggs whites contains sugar it will stabilize the egg foam,with this the meringe (yes now it has become a meringue is you gonna do that) wont go down after a long time, also depending in the manner that you made it either swiss,french, or italian way,if your recipe calls for that then do it, if not, dont.


How long can you store the bones of a chicken in the refrigerator?

Rumtscho gives the answer in the comments:

  No more than 4 hours spent between 5°C and 60°C, cumulative since
  purchase (assuming the butcher followed correct procedures). It is
  very restrictive, but most people think it is sensible to follow it
  (and American restaurants are legally obliged to)

And about freezing which I will use:

  if you want to stockpile bones, freeze them. They will keep for months
  that way. This question was about a refrigerator.


How to best store not-yet-used frying oil?

It should be stored in a cool-dark place. Your cupboard is just fine.

You're overlooking an important distinction in the Cook's Illustrated snippet: their oil is used. Used oil is already damaged by the high temperatures required for frying, this greatly shortens its shelf life and makes it much more prone to rancidity. Storage of used cooking oil is covered in other questions here:

Frying oil reuse
How to keep deep frying oil usable?

For peanut oil specifically, the shelf life is two years if unopened and one year if opened.

I have a nearly empty 10-14 month old bottle of peanut oil in my cupboard right now. I used it last night, and it showed no signs of rancidity.


Does adding baking soda to steam sweet potatoes in a pressure cooker help with caramelization?

The need for contact is correct, but not really the issue here (else you could have pre-rubbed your potatoes). Both caramelization and Maillard reaction (which are different things) require rather high temperatures. The reason to use steaming as a technique is to not get up to these temperatures. In traditional steaming, you only get your food to 100°C. In a pressure cooker, you can steam the food quicker, but even in an old fashioned pressure cooker at sea level*, you never get above 120 Celsius, which is not enough for any browning - and that's a feature, not a bug.

If you want Maillard reaction, or caramelization, you should choose a cooking method that can achieve that, such as roasting or pan-frying. If you are having trouble with pan-frying (e.g. having the outside burn while the center of the sweet potato chunks is still raw), you can first brown your food in a pan and then cook through with other methods such as braising, simmering or steaming.

You can, in principle, add baking soda during a browning step, but for me, the change in taste is not worth it. Normal browning gives you plenty of tasty crust on its own.

* Both elevation above the sea level and the use of modern electric pressure cookers mean less pressure, so lower temperature


I'm sure it's a personal preference.
Personally, I'd never dream of doing it, unless it was for a dish that specifically called for it, or one that requires 'chunks'*. Part of the job of the casing is to keep the sausages moist. You shouldn't even prick them with a fork whilst frying [yet some people do].
For chunks, there's a distinct difference between frying them whole & cutting up than cutting then frying. The first retains the shape, the second tends to squeeze out of the ends as the casing shrinks.


Convection/Steam cooking in a Normal Oven?

I like to use the 15% rule.  To convert a recipe from convection to conventional:

Multiply the cook time by 1.15.
Multiply the heat by 1.15

For example, your recipe would become:

"Each loaf should bake at (300*1.15 = 345) degrees Fahrenheit in convection/steam oven for approximately (40*1.15=46) minutes or until the loaf reaches 155 degrees internal temperature."

You can convert back by multiplying by .85.


What exactly does cooking meat do as far as sanitation goes?

Very simple: it kills bacteria.

The recommended cooking temperatures are empirically derived. They lead to a log 7 reduction in the amount of bacteria present. That is when you have a piece of meat, 1 in 10 000 000 of the bacteria on it remain alive after cooking. The recommended temperature for storage and cooking is chosen in such a way that, for food which has been handled safely before cooking, this reduction is enough to produce food which will be safe for the next 3-5 days in the fridge.

There is no path from "unsafe food" to "safe food". There is no telling how many bacteria are on your food if it was not handled properly. Bacteria grow exponentially, so small differences can result in not just a few more bacteria, but in many times as more bacteria. Also, there is always the problem of toxins created while there was a lively bacterial colony on the meat, even if you cook the bacteria to death afterwards.

In short, food is only safe when it is handled safely before cooking, cooked safely, and handled safely after cooking. A slip at any step cannot be remedied.


Can bananas really be ripened through oven baking?

No. Ripening is a specific chemical process. Baking the bananas has a similar effect in sweetening the fruit, but it is not the same as ripening, which is a process which occurs after exposure to ethylene gas (in a supermarket banana at least). Given that your diet seems very specific about the carbohydrates, I wouldn't diverge from its recommendations.


Making a sorbet by cooking or by pureeing the ingredients?

There are a few things to consider here. Firstly, sugar dissolves in hot water better than in cold water. So, regardless of other considerations, it's worth making a simple syrup of the water and sugar.

What will change by heating is a few things. From a taste standpoint, depending on how you cook the fruit, the sorbet may taste "cooked". If that's the flavor you're looking for, cook away! However, "fresher" tasting sorbets are made by just pureeing (and straining). Cooking the fruit also stops oxidation (and discoloring) which happens with some fruits. On the other hand, the acidic lime juice will help prevent oxidation. Speaking of lime juice, if it's freshly-squeezed, a large component to its flavor are the volatile citrus oils. Cooking will likely cause these to evaporate, thereby losing some "citrusy" flavor (the acidity will remain, though).

From a texture standpoint it depends on a few things. Cooked fruit is usually softer; when pureed it will contribute towards a smoother texture. Additionally, many fruits contain pectin which is released when cooking. Pectin will contribute positively to the resulting texture of the sorbet. However, overcooking does degrade the pectin.

One way to get the best of both worlds is to gently poach the fruit in the simple syrup to soften it and release the pectin. (Alternatively, you can sous vide the fruit.) If you really want the "fresh" flavor (my preference) but want the benefit of pectin you can add a hydrocolloid thickener like xanthan gum or guar gum in a small amount (usually under 1% by weight).


Why does boiling cream have such a drastic effect on my salted caramel?

You don't tell us neither the ratio of double cream to caramel, nor the time you heat the completed mix, so this is just a guess. But it sounds logical that your problem is evaporation.

Double cream consists mainly of fat and water. I don't remember the exact percentages, but more than half of it is water. So, if you heat cream, part of it evaporates during the heating, and it continues evaporating after being added to the pan with bubbling caramel. But if you use cold cream, its water hasn't evaporated during a heating phase, and if you add a large amount of cream to a hot caramel mixture, the whole mixture cools considerably. If you don't heat it and let it simmer for long enough afterwards, the water content of the cream continues thinning the spread. You end up with a runny sauce instead of a sticky spread.

Instead of pre-boiling, you should be able to just simmer for longer time after adding the cream, if you find it more convenient. But you'll have to try it a few times until you have found the cooking time which gives you optimal consistency.


Yippy for you. The term for the expansion of the loaf in the oven is " oven spring " and it is a good thing. Artisan bread bakers cut the top or sides of the loaf so it does not tear when it springs. There is tool called a lame' for this purpose. It is a razor blade mounted on a stick or wand so that it is curved. To use you need to perfect the technique of scoring the loaf with a flick of the wrist. Sounds like you have nice healthy sourdough.


How do I fix improperly seasoned cast iron pans?

Cast iron care need not seem so intimidating or mystical. There are lots of ways to take care of it, and though many will profess their own gospel and taboos associated with cast iron cookware, many different solutions will work. You just need to understand some of the basic principles and the rest is personal preference.

  First, in my naivete I used vegatable oil as the seasoning

There is nothing wrong with using vegetable oil as your seasoning. That is often what you will be cooking with anyway, and every time you cook with oil you are contributing to the seasoning on your skillet - so obviously it is a fine type of oil to constitute your seasoning.

  second, I also didn't remove the excess oil, leaving a sticky and uneven finish.

This has happened to me a number of times, even after removing excess oil. When you season it in an oven (preferably upside down), the oil heats up which can often cause it to run more easily before it has a chance to bond to the iron. That can cause it to leave spots without seasoning, and the spots that are seasoned will sometimes be sticky. I would just repeat the process again until the surface is completely seasoned. I usually wipe a light layer of vegetable oil on mine, turn it upside down in the oven, and bake it for an hour or two at around 350°F with a cookie sheet under it. It'll probably smoke a little bit, but don't worry about it.

Additionally, when I break in a new cast iron whatever, I like to cook with really greasy and oily foods (like bacon) the first few times I use it. It will help create a better seasoning and get rid of those sticky spots. Really let it pool up and try to cook for a decent amount of time. That can help get a nice, uniform finish on it. Scrape it clean with a lightly abrasive sponge or nylon brush and rinse it in cold water (maybe a tiny amount of dish soap if you really want, but it honestly doesn't need it). Dry off. Cook on it again. The more you cook with it, the better the seasoning will get.

Looking at your pictures, I would not do anything so drastic as use a caustic cleaning chemical to strip the seasoning off and start over. Just scrub it nice and clean with some soap, dry it off, and try seasoning it again. And again if you are still not satisfied. You'll get there.


Packaged fish in lots of liquid - is it safe

Fish is tricky because the smell does not come from bacteria but from degrading enzymes. Cod tends to smell fairly early while being perfectly good to eat.

More generally for food to spoil you need water, warmth, a nutrient and oxygen (in most situations),so in the case of your fish it is likely to be good to eat, being vacuum packed and chilled.

The water in the pack can come from thawing or from 'weak flesh' (eg farmed fish). When this happens to me, I pat it dry with a paper towel and then salt it lightly on all sides as this will firm up the flesh after 10 minutes or so.

Obviously nothing replaces buying a whole fish you've looked at 'in the eyes' and butcher it yourself but we all have to deal with packed fish every now and then...


What causes scrambled egg patties to turn greyish green on the inside?

Yes, too high temp will/can turn egg yolk blue-is/greenish/grayish.
But doing it in microwave will probably not. Mostly beacuse it's harder to heat anything inside than outside in a microwave.
From experience I can tell that in places made to feed a lot of people in short amount of time any breakfast items are premade and then just keep warm. So the patty would be cooked in temperature allowing inside to be done an then kept in an oven or over the lamp. Making inside of the patty to still boil (as energy exchange is slowed) allowing sulfur o bond with water in patty. The longer the heat is provided the longer this process take place.
A) the patties are safe too eat but they might be rich in sulfur
B) you might bought the food some time (few hours) after it was made and it wasn't made fresh
Overall nothing bad but personally that is something I would expect from a food stall rather than restaurant.


Cooked whole chicken has congealed blood around joints and bones, should I worry?

This exact thing happened to me about a month ago - roast whole chicken, bright red leaky blood around the bones and joints.

I looked it up back then.  I didn't find a truly authoritative source like the USDA, but I did find several instances of people saying that this happened even with highly overcooked chicken.  I also found several links similar to this one:

Bloody Chicken

The author (a Ph.D according to that page) did a number of experiments where he cooked a chicken and checked the internal temperature everywhere, ensuring that it was in fact pasteurized and thus free of any bacteria, and parts of it were still bloody on the inside.

According to him (and a few other sources I found), it's because the chickens are very young and their bones have not hardened properly; when you cook them, the marrow seeps out and ends up looking as you describe.

If you're using a meat thermometer to test the chicken for doneness, and you are certain that it got hot enough, then don't worry about the blood.  It's not appetizing, but it's not harmful either.

FWIW, I ate the chicken when it happened to me, and did not get the slightest bit sick.


What is the trick to kneading silk smooth bread?

"Cloud buns" and your bread dough are really two different products.  The dough in the video is likely based on a "milk bread" recipe, which results in the smooth texture that is pictured.  It reminds me of the Momofuku Pork Bun, a recipe I have made often.  This recipe produces a very smooth dough, which is portioned, shaped, and steamed.  It has a much different texture than my rustic sourdough loaves, which are generally a higher hydration than the dough you've pictured, but  not nearly as shiny and smooth as the milk bread.  It's just the nature of the recipe and the ingredients.  You can knead all you want, but you are not going to get the same texture and sheen, likely because your bread dough does not include milk and fat.


What are some good substitions for alcohol in cooking?

I can't give you a list with good substitutes for common dishes. First, I doubt that my common dishes are your common dishes. Second, it would be too long. If you want to substitute alcohol in a dish, you have to understand what it does in the specific recipe, and then use your imagination to think of an ingredient which will have a similar effect.

Alcohol has mostly three effects in a dish. First, it is a liquid, and its bulk must be considered. In recipes where the ratio is important (mainly batters), if you leave out the alcohol, you have to add some other liquid to maintain the original ratio.

Second, alcohol adds its own taste. A small part of it is the taste of the ethanol itself, but cooks mostly use beverages with a strong taste of their own as a component of the dish.

Third, alcohol is a solvent. It can get more taste out of your other ingredients than pure water. (Ever wondered why vanilla extract is alcohol based?) This is especially important in recipes which give it a longer time to interact with the other ingredients, such as the slow boiling of a coq au vin.

Depending on which of these effects are important to you, you have different options to act.

Just leave it out. If you aren't baking, you probably aren't that interested in the ratio. And if you expect the result to taste well enough without the alcohol, the simplest solution is to skip it.
Use a liquid substitute. This is especially important in baking and confectionery, but you can decide to do it in any case. Depending on the original kind of alcohol and taste you are aiming for, you can use pure water, a liquid trying to stay close to the original taste, or a liquid which gives a completely new taste profile to the whole recipe. For example, in a sweet dish like your foster dessert you can use caramel dissolved in apple juice instead of dark rum if you want to mimic the original, or cherry juice to create a cherry-banana dessert. Common liquids to use are sugared water (when the original recipe had a sweet liquor), a fruit or vegetable juice, a herbal infusion, clear stock, or pickle liquid. Don't be afraid to use more than one liquid to get closer to the effect you want. If the recipe already uses some other liquid, you can just use more of it.
Use a spice or condiment. This is when your main concern is the taste, and you don't care about the missing liquid. Again, you could be trying to mime the original closely (using orange zest instead of Grand Marnier), or just using any strong spice so the dish doesn't become bland. It is up to you. A special case is to use only a taste "essence": for some beverages common in baking, you can buy a propylene-glycol based condiment which approximates their aroma. Rum essence is widely available, but I'm quite sure that the whiskey flavored ice cream in the supermarket isn't full of real whiskey.
Leave the alcohol in the recipe (possibly reduced). Obviously impossible in some circumstances, like a wine sauce, but quite feasible in others. You don't have to drown the dessert in rum and flambe it. If you use 20 ml of rum per 1000 g of other ingredients, a child who eats a normal serving (150 g) will consume somewhat less than 1.2 g of ethanol if no alcohol at all is cooked out - and in practice, if the recipe calls for cooking, maybe half of the alcohol will evaporate, and a very young child will probably not eat the whole serving. I don't think that such miniscule amounts are problematic for children.

Of course, you are free to combine these solutions in any way you see fit, depending on which effect(s) of alcohol you are trying to imitate. For example, if a baking recipe calls for 50 ml of calvados, use 15 ml of calvados, 35 ml of apple juice, and a breath of powdered cinnamon. Or baste a roast with a mix of tomato and carrot juice instead of red wine. The possibilities are endless, you just have to be clear on why you are choosing whatever you are choosing.


How long will previously-frozen vacuum-packed chicken last in the fridge?

My answer to the other question still applies: vacuum packing will not prevent most foodborne pathogens from multiplying.  In the case of chicken, it will stop campylobacter (which needs small amounts of oxygen) but will not stop salmonella or listeria.

Here's how you can determine if thawed, previously frozen chicken is still safe to eat:

When freezing, marking the freezing date on masking tape and stick it on the package
When thawing, mark the thawing date similarly
To determine if it's still good: subtract the freezing date from the original expiration date, and see if it's been that many days since you thawed it

This method works because spoilage is halted by freezing... but not reversed.  Once you thaw, the process picks back up where it left off.  A few days in the fridge after thawing should be fine, assuming you don't wait until right before expiration to freeze the chicken.


More careful inspection of the good pancakes revealed that I was overcooking mine. The cafes brown the outsides but leave the insides slightly raw to be moist


What does it mean in a Recipe to "steep the gelatin"?

Steeping the gelatin is the same as just soaking it in cold water. Because the structure of the gelatin is now changing, an other word for this is steeping.
You need to steep the gelatin until its softened (when using leaves). This will normally not take more then 10 minutes, but just look at the package the gelatin comes in to see what they recommend, and compare with what the recipe tells you. (I don't have experience with powder gelatin).


Will washing a certain part of my blender in the dishwasher ruin it?

Many blenders can be decently cleaned by just blending a couple changes of water, sometimes with detergent added in the first change, in them.

If the manufacturer says the part is dishwasher safe (adhere strictly to instructions about temperatures, detergents, and racks to be used!) and it degrades, get a warranty replacement.

There are two potentially problematic spots in a blender jar where a dishwasher could ruin things:

Seals.
Blades.

Some blender designs use sharp blades made like knife blades - such are sensitive to:

mechanical  edge damage (if the blade is allowed to bang against anything else in the dishwasher!),
thermal degradation (prolonged heating even at 70/80°C can mess up the temper of a blade in the long run),
corrosion (almost all hardenable knife steel, even if called stainless, is more corrosion sensitive than pot&pan type nickel austenitic stainless steel. If the manufacturer used an extraordinarily corrosion proof blade material like SM-100 alloy or H1 steel, they would for sure advertise it and ask for quite a markup.

Other blender designs work with rather blunt blades that rely on sheer collision force, such designs could be expected to hardly suffer from the abovementioned effects.


I'm making cook n serve vanilla pudding can I add vanilla extract to it to make it taste more vanilla? it's for boston cream puffs.

Sure you can. However, there is a limit to how much vanilla flavor tastes good, and without more information there's no telling you when that limit would be reached; in fact, the existing vanilla pudding may already be there.

You can test this by adding a smidge of vanilla to a spoon of pudding and then tasting it. However, be careful; after multiple tastings it could be easy to get used to the vanilla and end up putting in way too much for non-habituated tongues.


Is it ok to use plastic containers to bake in an electric oven?

Here is a list of common plastics found in kitchen containers. You will find this information on the bottom of the container, in a triangle with a number inside.

While some plastics used in microwavable applications appear to have a high melting point, PET for instance melts at 510ºF, please remember that the material will soften, weaken and otherwise degrade long before actually melting into liquid. Other plastics labeled microwave safe, like HDPE, melts at a mere 265ºF! While microwave safe plastics may have a relatively high short term temperature resistance, sustained temperature tolerance, as in leaving it in an oven for baking, is much lower.

Silicone bakeware, by contrast, has a melting point of 935ºF, but is only rated for use at sustained temperatures no greater than 675ºF. Above that point, and the material will soften, warp and degrade. Thermoplastics have a much lower melting point, and it can be expected that their sustained temperature resistance is likewise much lower, to the point where using them as bakeware is unadvisable.


What would cause dough not to rise while making no-knead bread?

First and foremost, the classic recipes states quite clearly, "Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles." Expecting microorganisms to do their work in precisely the same amount of time, every time, requires a good bit of precision on your part.

Why the slow rise? Almost definitely a yeast problem. The question is, which kind of yeast problem? Acid can kill yeast, heat can kill yeast, salt can kill yeast, sitting in a package forever can kill them, and there are other, less likely scenarios too.

Are you using jarred active dry yeast or individual packets? You mention testing it, but what technique did you use, a little water and sugar, watch for bubbles? You can (and probably should) do this at the beginning of the recipe, so that your yeast is kickstarted into alertness.

Stainless steel is not the problem. It's non-reactive.

Vinegar is likely to slow the growth, so you probably just need to give it more time. The best way to judge readiness is by the dough, not by the clock.

Another factor is that a few degrees difference can make a difference in the rate of yeast growth and CO2 production:
"With glucose as growth-limiting substrate in the chemostat and aerobic conditions in the respirometer, the carbon dioxide output was found to be higher as temperature at which the organisms were cultured increased from 25 to 39" --Journal of Microbiosology

Hope these help, but I think there's not just one answer here.


Cook in large batches. The difference in time between preparing a single serving and, say, six servings is far, far less than 6x.

Pick the kind of meals that are okay to be refrigerated/frozen, or otherwise preserved, obtain a bunch of single meal sized tupperware boxes, make sure to have room in your refrigerator/freezer/pantry, and prepare quite a few meals of the same dish at a time. Eat one serving, leave the rest "for later".

Don't go about it the way you cook the next batch only when current one runs out, but stagger that - a week of cooking six servings of a new dish every day, leaves you with five more weeks worth of varied meals. Label your food, with type and date so that you don't leave anything too long and you know what you have (it's quite hard to tell some foods apart when they are frozen).

You also don't need to make complete meals - you can prepare some more time-consuming ingredients in large batches, then make the readily made parts of the meal as needed, fresh - e.g. prepare several spaghetti sauces with meat, leaving cooking pasta and adding fresh seasoning as you prepare individual meals.


I think this is primarily going to come down to the method of cooking and the flavorings. I think it's unlikely that you can buy a microwave popcorn that will taste like the movie theatre.

You'll need a specific popcorn pan so that you can stir the popcorn continuously and that will also vent some of the steam from cooking (which a normal pot won't do. Whirley Pop seems to be a common solution here.

Next you'll need to find the right type of oil. Experiment with a couple of things to see what you like. Coconut oil seems to be commonly recommended (and not easy to find).

Finally you'll need flavoring. Try Flavacol. My work has popcorn on thursdays, and they use this flavoring. It's pretty dead on.

I don't think the actual pop corn kernels will make a ton of difference. It's more the cooking technique and other ingredients.

Here's my primary source, but further research and experience backs that up as pretty dead on.


In the past I made such a mistake multiple times with the same microwave... the one I still use to this day.
So if the sparks from the golden part of your mug was the only incident, I believe your microwave is just fine.


What does "lightly crushed" mean for cardamon pods?

I'm pretty sure it's just crushing the husks a bit so they crack open - that's how I do it when I see "lightly crushed" for cardamom pods.  It gives access to the seeds inside so flavor can infuse out of the pod and into the dish.  The whole pod should be visible in the recipe, and removed before eating (would be a woody bite, else).

If you crush the husk in smaller bits, which would be needed to get to & crush the seeds, it would be harder to find and fish out, and more likely some huskish bit would find its way into and leave its texture in a bite.  Its similar to how cinnamon would be used in big chunks of a stick that can be fished out, or else ground really finely into dust, but not left in a dish in in-between-sized little fragments - the texture is just not desirable

If the recipe wanted crushed or ground seeds to release the flavor, it would have asked for seeds instead of (or as well as) a whole pod.


Can the amount of salt in the recipe be right?

It's been a while since I made sushi but 2 tablespoons does sound a little on the ridiculous side.

Various other recipes use similar amounts (to each other):

AllRecipes: 1 tsp salt (for 1/2 cup vinegar and 4 tbsp sugar)
Alton Brown: 1 tbsp kosher salt (for 2 tbsp vinegar and 2 tbsp sugar)
SushiRecipes: 1 tsp salt (for 1/2 cup vinegar and 1/2 cup sugar)
Epicurious: 1/2 tsp salt (for 2 tbsp vinegar and 1 tbsp sugar)

In fact, although sushi rice recipes tend to vary significantly with respect to the proportions of rice, vinegar, and sugar, they are all remarkably consistent on the amount of salt.  The Alton Brown recipe calls for a tablespoon, but 1 tbsp of kosher salt is in fact equivalent to 1-2 tsp of table or sea salt.  Even on the Epicurious recipe, the 1/2 tsp is only for 1 cup of rice - you'd double it to the same 1 tsp for the standard 2 cups.

I assume that the recipe you're looking at must have meant 2 tsp and not tbsp, but I think even that is too much; I would stick to the 1 tsp used in almost every sushi rice recipe I've ever seen.


Is pressed cottage cheese a different cheese?

Cottage cheese is made by separating the whey from the protiens in milk.  If you add lemon juice or vinegar to milk that has been brought up to 180 degrees and then cooled to 100 or so it will separate into small or large curds.  All that is left is to rinse it through a strainer.  If you want a Ricotta type cheese you can put the strained cottage cheese in cheese cloth (hence the name "cheese cloth") and squeeze out more of the liquid.  If you put the cottage cheese in a press it will turn out to be a white firm block of Mexican style cheese.  Many people add a little salt to the cottage cheese prior to pressing to aid in the removal of the whey and prolong the life of final product.  All in all if you press plain cottage cheese you will just have firmer cottage cheese. Store bought cottage cheese will not work in a press.  Store bought cottage cheese has cream added back into it to give it the texture that you are used to seeing in the container. It will not solidify. The cream will stop the curds from sticking together.  Make your own and you will enjoy it way more anyhow.


Difference between New York strip and a first cut strip

From Huffington Post:

  Strip steak: The multiplicity of names — New York strip, club steak, Kansas City steak, shell steak — attests to the popularity of this steak. Tender (but not too tender); well-marbled (i.e., generously endowed with fat); and richly flavored — what more could you ask for in a steak? Not that you asked, but a center cut New York strip is Steven Raichlen’s favorite cut. Tip: Sometimes you’ll find supermarket strip steaks labeled “first cut.” This makes them sound more exclusive, but actually the “first cut” has a visible line of gristle running through the meat. That’s why “first cut” strips cost about half the price of the more desirable center cuts of the short loin.

(Emphasis mine.)


What's the best option for water for tea in the office?

Either buy a cheap electric kettle, or if you are really fussed about not re-boiling water then shell out a bit more for one of the single cup hot water dispensers like the Tefal Quick Cup or the Breville Hot Cup.

We have both a cheap kettle and a Breville Hot Cup in our office. The kettle is good for making cups for multiple people at the same time, the Hot Cup is good for a single person.


What features should I look for when buying an espresso maker?

An espresso machine usually needs to push water at somewhere between 8 and 15 bar pressure, which is quite a lot. And since it is the high-pressure components that are key to how they work, it is the quality and durability of these that tends to set the price point.

The quality of the pump varies from a device intended to be used for two or three cups once a week, all the way to professional machines designed to produce thousand of cups a day, month after month. This is why domestic machines are usually quite clear that they are for domestic use only: they simply cannot cope with the duty cycle of any more than that. Many domestic espresso machines will turn themselves off if they are used to make too many cups in one session - quite simply, they overheat.

It sounds like one you bought is one intended for occasional use. My advice is to visit a couple of retailers that have staff dedicated to selling espresso machines. They will, of course, try to sell you "their" brand, but they will also recognise when someone needs a domestic unit designed for daily use as opposed to one just for special occasions.

As a bonus, you generally get what you pay for with espresso machines. The more expensive domestic ones usually really do last much longer.


Is there enough pectin in Apples to make jam

Yes.  See the accepted answer for Can most sour fruits be jelled by cooking with sugar?.  After getting that answer, I have successfully made apple jelly with fresh cooked and strained apple juice and sugar, and nothing else.  You can search for apple jelly recipes and find directions.


What is the difference between an herb and a spice?

From fooducate.com

The difference between the two is where they are obtained from a plant.
Herbs come from the leafy and green part of the plant.
Spices are parts of the plant other than the leafy bit such as the root, stem, bulb, bark or seeds.
Examples of herbs include basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, parsley and mint.

From spice-racks.com

Herbs are obtained from the leaves of herbaceous (non-woody) plants.
Spices are obtained from roots, flowers, fruits, seeds or bark.
In some cases both a herb and spice may come from the same plant. Dill is an example of this.


Methylcellulose is commonly used in molecular gastronomy to raise the freezing temperture of solids and liquids. Think piping-hot ice cream.

For the gel, you could use agarose (commonly agar) to create a jelly.

The other obvious choice for the gel would be gelatin. Buy plain gelatin at the store and have at it with the directions.

You can create a foam using either the gelatin or the agar and an N2O whipper. This is also called an espuma.

The third, more fun choice would be to get thee to an asian food store and buy and flavor some tapioca pearls.


"Useful" is rather subjective. If you clarify what you mean by useful I can likely clarify and improve my answer as well.

One thing to keep in mind when using old cookbooks and recipes is that terminology changes a lot over time. You may have significant difficulty translating ingredients to their modern equivalents. You also may not be able to easily find the ingredients once you do translate them. A good example is this question.

Another thing you may need to be aware of is how much our knowledge has changed. You'll likely encounter a lot more misinformation than a more modern cookbook.

If you enjoy the extra work involved, then sure why not get the old ones. If you have trouble translating a recipe, you can always ask here! :)


Alternative Binding Ingredient for Sugar in Flapjacks? (British style)

This might affect the texture too much, but if you're willing to experiment you could try some mashed banana.

I made these banana and oat cookies a while ago, which have the ratio of 1 banana to ~90g of oats. The recipe says to blend the oats, though I didn't bother, and the cookies came out pretty chewy.

The recipe is way too heavy on banana to come out like a flapjack, but you might be able to use a little to offset a reduction in sugar in a proper flapjack recipe. I'm not speaking from experience though, so no promises that it won't be a disaster!


How to know if a zip lock bag is safe for sous-vide (or boiling), without indication from the manufacturer?

You don't mention the brand you use but, as many of us do, refer generically to ziplock bags. For the brand name product, SC Johnson, which makes both Ziploc® brand bags and Saran ™ Wrap, states that it does not use BPA in these products.

  SC Johnson’s Ziploc® brand Bags and Containers are BPA free. Our products are extensively evaluated for toxicity and safety and comply with applicable quality and safety regulations.

If you brand you use doesn't make a similar statement on the box or the manufacturer's web site, then better to use Ziploc, not an off brand.

Modern Cuisine noted that:

  [T]he safest plastics for use with food are high-density polyethylene, low-density polyethylene, and polypropylene. Virtually all sous vide bags are made from these plastics, as are most brand-name food storage bags and plastic wraps such as Saran Wrap.


Time and Temperature to bake small fruit cakes

Recipes for fruitcake vary tremendously, without more information there isn't any way to say how long and at what temperature. I looked at several recipes, and none called for a bain marie, but some do recommend a pan of water below the cake to provide moist heat.

You might find this Food Network Recipe helpful, because it gives directions for various cake sizes, but the directions are for this particular recipe, not yours. If I were using that link as a guide, I would use a temp of about 260-265F and start testing the cakes for doneness at about 1.5 hours.

All of the fruitcake recipes I looked at use a skewer or toothpick stuck in the center to test for doneness. The cake is done when the toothpick comes out clean.


Substitue for paneer? Have low fat milk, plain youghurt, cream cheese and butter

No, you can't substitute any of those for paneer. This should be pretty obvious given that you're trying to skewer and grill the paneer. It's a firm cheese that doesn't melt, while any combination of milk, yogurt, cream cheese, and butter will melt, if it's not liquid already. The best substitutes would be other cheeses like halloumi that don't melt, or else tofu. A firm cottage cheese would probably also do okay.

You also can't really use a cheese that melts in something like this. First of all, it just could never be the same texture, and the flavor would be a bit different too. But it could be worse than that. You didn't say exactly how much pumpkin, onion, and breadcrumbs you have in there, but generally, if you put a melting cheese in there, it's at best going to make the whole thing less solid and at worst it'll drip out as you grill it or conceivably even let it fall apart.

But you can indeed make paneer with the low fat milk, though. The texture just won't be quite as good - a little tougher, more dry and maybe even crumbly - since there's less fat and relatively more protein. With whole milk, 2L of milk makes ~350 grams of paneer, though that can of course vary depending on how well you drain/press it. Low fat milk won't have quite as high a yield, but you can probably still just start with 2L. The texture is probably the bigger problem. (And it'll of course be worse if your milk is 1% than if it's 2%.)


If you are saying you cannot get the oil hot enough during pre-heating:

You may need a bigger burner than the one you are using. Most resources I've seen suggest over 100k BTU
There may be something physically wrong with your setup (i.e., the vessel should be closer to the flame)
The ambient temperature at the time of cooking was simply too cold for the burner to keep up (see problem 1).

If you are using a purpose-built commercial turkey fryer, I suggest consulting the book or contacting the company. If you built the rig yourself, I suggest more fire! (and lots of safety precautions)

Now... if you are talking about a temperature drop after you dunk the bird, realize that is totally normal.

Alton Brown suggests a preheat temperature of 250 degrees. He suggests raising the temp to 350 after the bird is in the bath but adds the following advice:

  "Closely monitor the oil temperature: it's will start to climb above 350 as moisture cooks out of the turkey; reduce the gas flow accordingly..." (Ref ep. 163 transcript in his book Good Eats 2, page 413)

You may need to use a smaller turkey to achieve the internal temperature you want without burning the outside. I'd look for something in the ballpark of 10 pounds. If you are cooking for a crowd, it's best to go with multiple birds instead of going bigger.

Be mindful of carry-over cooking:

  Even after it’s been removed from a heat source, food continues to cook. Its internal temperature can rise anywhere from 5 to 20 degrees. The larger the food, the more carryover or residual cooking you’ll have.
  http://www.cookingclarified.com/2011/01/carryover-cooking/


How do I make prepared seitan (gluten) more tender?

Some meat tenderizers will very likely work since they are proteases, some of which work on plant based proteins too. Try on a small piece and compare.

Frying and simmering will both cook it to an even more firm state (maybe it would eventually cook to mush if you cooked it for days... but one way to MAKE it involves a 3-4 hour simmer :).

I am assuming it is not actually rubbery due to being undercooked - in that case your 1 hour braise should have improved it.


Why do bananas turn black in the refrigerator?

Your fridge speeds production of polyphenols, which speeds the blackening process. Unrefrigerated bananas ripen by ethylene gas which will also eventually turn them black, but the cold short circuits that process.


What is the difference in taste between stock and broth?

Even though I think they are essentially the same, based on general practices while you’re making stock you’ll end up with a high gelatin content, it will be thicker than a broth, as you tend to use mostly bones.

Stock is generally cooked and reduced longer compared to broth, so I would say stock would actually be more flavorful. However as you have noted, broth also involves seasoning and stock is on it’s own for later usage... They might have different flavor profiles based on how you cook and season them.


I have used gas ovens with gas hobs, electric ovens with electric hobs, and electric ovens with gas hobs. By far the best combination is gas hob and electric oven. I'll break the pros and cons down:

Gas Hob

Pros:

Heats up quickly
Heat changes quickly - when you turn it off, it's off.
Fine control over heat

Cons:

Can create 'hotspots', but this is why you have different sized rings
Can be fussier to clean
Obvious danger of gas leaks, but modern safety systems mitigate this

Electric hobs are pretty much the opposite. They can be slow to heat and react slowly to heat changes (so if you want to go from a boil to a simmer you have to plan 20 minutes ahead). They also have the disadvantage of remaining hot even when they're turned off, which can be dangerous. Their only advantage over gas hobs is a more even heat across the pan, and being easier to clean.

Electric Oven (preferably fan)

Pros:

Quick to preheat
Even temperature throughout the oven
Precise temperature control

Cons:

None that I can think of

In contrast, gas ovens are slow to preheat, have marked zones of different heat (cooler at the bottom, hot at the top) and have coarser heat control. Also, because the flame is generally at the back of the oven, you can end up burning larger dishes that butt right up to it. All this builds up to make an unreliable oven (in terms of cooking results).

In conclusion, a gas hob/electric oven combo is the best because it gives you ultimate control over your cooking.


When cooking tomato sauce for a long time, should you add water?

Tomatoes are mostly water anyway. They're not going to get above boiling point whether or not you add water (or at least not by more than a very few degrees even with salt added - less than the effect of altitude).

On the other hand the browned bits from the bottom of the pan (often called fond in the US though I've never heard this in the UK and the usage in France is a bit different) do give a nice flavour to the sauce so long as they don't catch.

If you do add water, you'll need to simmer it down anyway, making that the stirring step still happens, just later. But adding some water fairly early can give you some flexibility. A good time to do this is when it's starting to need constant stirring but you need to get on with the rest of the meal. A low heat and a heavy pan help too.


Does jerky need to be preserved with nitrites?

Yes, your nitrite-free jerky is safe to eat. Nitrites are only one possible method of preservation, along with smoking and salting the food.


How much sorrel is safe to eat, and does cooking affect this amount?

There are indeed different varieties of sorrel,* but they're both/all high (though I can't determine how high) in the substance of concern, which is oxalic acid. This acid is found in lots of other green leafy vegetables, notably spinach and parsley, and is the reason that you shouldn't eat rhubarb leaves.**

It seems to have a reasonably high expected lethal dose; the internet echo chamber puts it at 600 mg/kg, which would mean eating pounds and pounds of whatever leaf you've got. The necessary amount to cause sickness is obviously much lower, however. There's also a long-term risk for kidney stones -- oxalic acid combines or reacts with calcium to form calcium oxalate, which is a major component of those stones (and this is the mechanism for more immediate poisoning, whether lethal or not). I have also seen reports of simple mouth and digestive irritation, again caused by the calcium salt.

Unfortunately, it seems that cooking does not destroy oxalic acid. It may be possible to reduce its presence by boiling and discarding the water, however. It's unclear to me whether this is because the acid itself dissolves into the water, or whether the oxalates (Harold McGee says that the potassium and sodium salts are water-soluble) form during cooking and are dissolved.

In all, I think the only recommendation that can be made is simple moderation. It's incredibly unlikely that you'll kill anyone with a salad, but don't eat the stuff in large amounts every day.

*"Common" (looks like elongated spinach) and "wood" (looks a bit like clover, but the leaves are cardiod) are the two that I'm most familiar with.

**Although it seems that there's possibly at least one other poisonous substance in the leaves.


In America's Test Kitchen's recipe for Hot and Sour Soup (sorry, paywalled), they call for 5 tablespoons black Chinese vinegar or 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar plus 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar. So a 50/50 mix of both vinegars for more than twice the amount of Chinkiang vinegar. I have made Hot and Sour Soup with Chinkiang and with the red wine and balsamic substitution. I can vouch for the substitution.


I've been trying different ideas on this for a while now.  I can't get it done well so I've started to cook the vegetables separately.  It only takes about fifteen minutes to gently boil them.  I've been thinking about a second crock pot for the vegetables but have not done that yet.


Which foods are most likely contaminated by dairy due to processing methods used?

Practices will differ with country (or community in some cases) of origin. A country where few dairy products are commonly consumed or produced, or where a significant amount of the population is not dairy tolerant (parts of asia) or where religious codex exists about dairy use (eg jewish communities) is likely to have different practices from scandinavian countries that lead the world in per-capita dairy consumption.

Equally, the country where the product is marketed/consumed is important, especially when it comes to what has to be declared on the label, with which tolerance levels, by whom. Also try to take advantage of multi-language, multi-market label text - sometimes important hints are found only in foreign language versions of ingredient lists or allergy advice (ever noticed that they sometimes differ - where it is unlikely that two different products are described)....


How does core temperature relate with slow cooking?

For slow cooking you don't just want to achieve a specified core temperature. You want to hold the meat at that temperature (usually about 70 degrees Celsius / 160 Fahrenheit) for several hours until the connective tissue starts breaking down. The temperature of the oven / whatever is usually kept low (although it has to be at or above the desired core temperature, otherwise the meat will never come up in the correct temp) to prevent the meat from burning while it's cooked. Just bringing the internal temperature to 70 degrees will not produce pulled pork. Keeping it there for 2+ hours will.


How prevalent was foodborne botulism before stricter food safety guidelines?

Summary:

It's impossible to give a good statistical answer to this question, since historically botulism was associated with only certain foods, and diagnosis was mostly based on symptoms occurring after consumption of those foods.  Thus, old statistics include a small subset of actual cases.  Actual medical testing for botulism in an ambiguous case was not common until at least the mid-20th century (after most modern food-safety protocols to prevent it came into effect).

In any case, the reason why protocols came into effect was likely due to the seriousness of the illness.  Between 1900 and 1950, the U.S. fatality rate from confirmed cases of botulism was greater than 60%.  So, even if the incidence of this type of food poisoning was very small, there was great interest in prevention.  The two main botulism prevention techniques (nitrate/nitrite curing of meats and pressure-canning) were understood by the 1920s and widely implemented commercially.

More details (including more than you ever wanted to know about the history of sausage illnesses) below.

Part 1: Why We Cure Meat

I should start out by noting that this is a very hard question to answer.  The specific botulism bacteria was not identified until 1895, so we cannot know the exact cause of illnesses before then.  Historically, botulism illness was also associated with certain foods, so cases caused by other foods were not considered to be "botulism."  Foodborne illness in general was probably quite common in the past, but it's hard to come up with exact numbers for the same reason that we tend to have arguments and questions periodically here about people saying, "I've been doing this all my life in this way, and the food never caused me a problem!"  Even if a particular illness is frequently associated with food, it's hard to identify the cause without a lab test.  And if illness is delayed by hours or even a day or more, people may not make any association with food that was previously eaten.

Botulism is one of the few foodborne illnesses that was identified earlier (back in the 1700s) only because its death rate was so high.

Historically, it was likely a significant cause of illness, particularly in processed meats.  The word botulism comes from Latin botulus, meaning "sausage," because it was originally associated with sausage-making.  Botulism was clearly identified in the first couple decades of the 1800s.  Due to the efforts of Justinus Kerner, the Kingdom of Württemberg (now a part of Germany) passed laws requiring the reporting of all incidents of sausage poisoning.  Within a 35-year span, there were 234 reported cases, with 110 fatalities.  Keep in mind these are deaths from one type of food (and most of them specifically from blood sausage) in a population of only a few hundred thousand.  (For comparison, there were a bit over 1000 cases of foodborne botulism from all foods in the entire U.S. from 1950-2000, in a population nearly a thousand times bigger.)  And these estimates from Württemberg are still low, since more and more cases were identified over that period as people became more familiar with the symptoms and likely cause.

Of course, we cannot confirm that all cases from Württemberg were actually botulism, since no bacteria test could be done; some were undoubtedly early cases of trichinosis or other diseases.  But Kerner identified many of the symptoms, as well as realizing the necessity of the absence of air.  (Sausages which were not stuffed fully didn't seem to cause the illness.)  So it's likely many if not most were actual cases of botulism.  Even after the cause was discovered and more sanitary methods encouraged, sausage botulism was still a major problem in Germany until the early 20th century (with about 800 cases and 200 fatalities occurring between 1886 and 1913).

Once the bacteria had been identified, new protocols could be put in place, and these numbers declined dramatically.  The use of nitrates and nitrates as a curing agent for meats (which dates back centuries) became standard practice in the 1920s, since nitrate/nitrite was shown to prevent botulism bacteria growth.  Although they are criticized by some today, nitrates or nitrites are absolutely essential to guaranteeing the safety of meat stored for long periods.  (It should be noted that most "uncured" meats advertised today actually contain adequate amounts of added nitrate/nitrite to prevent botulism growth; these chemicals are just added in "natural" sources like celery powder/juice.  Thus, they're still "cured," just with a different source for nitrate/nitrite.)  Uncured meats continue to be a problem, for example, in Alaska, where native food processing practices result in a botulism rate many times the rest of the U.S.  (The CDC reports that Alaska accounts for around 15% of botulism cases, despite having only about 0.2% of the U.S. population.)

In an era where more people are becoming interested in homemade charcuterie, it's important to keep in mind the etymological root of the word botulism and why it's absolutely necessary to cure meat if not consistently refrigerated.  Ground or chopped meats are a particular hazard.

Part 2: The Canned Vegetable Conundrum

We don't tend to hear about botulism in relation to meat since curing solved that problem.  (And, despite recent trends, home curing of meat is uncommon, so related incidents are relatively rare.)  Instead, botulism is probably more associated with home canning these days, often of vegetables or fruits.

Keep in mind that botulism bacteria require anaerobic conditions to grow, along with moisture, the lack of an acidic environment, and storage above refrigeration temperatures.  Traditional preservation methods before the mid-1800s tended to involve fermentation (which tends to produce an acidic environment), large quantities of sugar, and/or drying, all usually open to air, all of which will prevent botulism.  It was only with the advent of canning low-acid foods that botulism could become a new foodborne hazard.

The canning of low-acid food was basically solved by trial-and-error.  While canning was first invented in the early 1800s, it wasn't until the 1860s that the cause of preservation (i.e., destruction and exclusion of bacteria) was understood.  And soon after, pressure canning methods were invented for commercial canning, which sped up the sterilization process and could also kill botulism bacteria.  However, this mechanism was not understood and universally implemented until the 1920s.

And here we find another problem in answering the question.  Botulism, until around 1900, was thought to be a sausage-related illness only.  So, we have no way of documenting the statistics of botulism caused by other foods before then.  Starting around 1900, it was recognized to be a problem in preserved meats in general, but it was not immediately associated with other foods, like canned low-acid fruits or vegetables.  Therefore, if there were cases of botulism from canned foods, they perhaps were not recognized as such until the link was clearly shown in the 1920s.  (Before this, canning recommendations claimed that adequate processing was achieved by extremely long processing  or by periodic reboiling and processing over a period of days.)  While sporadic cases of botulism in canned goods were identified starting in 1904 with a case related to German canned white beans, the evidence was mostly anecdotal and cases were likely only occasionally identified and reported.

That all changed after an incident in 1919, when botulism from canned California olives resulted in 19 deaths, followed by around 20 deaths in 1920-21 from canned spinach.  Within a couple years, the risk of botulism from canning was thoroughly investigated and recognized.  At first, only home-canning was implicated, but once people started looking, many cases associated with commercial canning were also found.

The CDC notes 477 outbreaks of botulism with 1281 cases of botulism in 1899-1949 in the U.S.  Many of these cases involved canning before the necessity of pressure canning standards were understood in the 1920s.  But it was probably significantly underreported.  There were only a few decades between the time when home canning became widespread and when pressure-canning was recognized as essential, and for most of this period botulism caused by plant-based foods was unlikely to be associated with the traditional "sausage illness."  The main evidence I was able to find that anyone recognized low-acid foods as being a problem in canning is the divergent recommendations in early canning recipes.  Low-acid fruits and vegetables (along with meat) required significantly longer processing times or periodic reboiling (Tyndallization) even in the late 1800s, long before the botulism danger for plant-based foods was understood.  Clearly, they recognized the greater spoilage patterns (and perhaps illnesses) and tried to prevent them.  (For some examples: This 1890 canning book recommends 3 hours for processing corn and similar vegetables, after giving processing times of only a few minutes for many fruits. Another 1892 book has similar advice and notes if you see a bulging lid or froth, you may boil and use fruit immediately -- probably assuming fermentation due to inadequate seal or processing -- but "vegetables must, of course, be thrown away" if they display similar symptoms.  Other sources recommend extra care, e.g., in sterilization of equipment, when canning vegetables.)

From that perspective, the question is really unanswerable.  Obviously people knew something was wrong with low-acid canned foods before anyone would have even suspected a connection with the "sausage illness."  And they were already taking rather extreme measures to try to prevent it (like very long processing times, which were probably at least somewhat effective in decreasing the incidence of botulism, even if not preventing it entirely).  Also, if you start poking around in sources from the late 1800s, you'll see a lot of references to illnesses caused by commercial canned goods.  Mostly the illnesses are blamed on acute metal poisoning (which was possible back then), but there apparently were many incidents of people contracting serious illnesses in a short time and even dying, including symptoms like paralysis.  In 1887, the Journal of the American Medical Association was even led to report on such "acute poisoning from canned goods" symptoms (many of which sound to me like botulism symptoms according to what we know today).

For decades up until 1920, canning businesses circulated articles assuring consumers that their products were safe, but all the while other articles were appearing about mysterious illnesses.  Immediately after testing in earnest was started for botulism in canned goods, the toxin was found -- both in homemade and commercial goods.  And within a few years, canning processing was altered to prevent the problem.

We just don't know how many prior illnesses may have actually been botulism.

Part 3: Recent Trends and New Botulism Types

The CDC statistics for 1950-1996 list 444 outbreaks of botulism with 1087 cases, which (apparently) changed little in annual incidence from the first half of the 20th century.  But in this period, it's likely the data is more complete. Moreover, the vast majority of recent cases are due to errors in home preservation procedures, such as canning, whereas outbreaks in the early 1900s were also likely to be associated with commercial processing.

These statistics are also misleading in other ways.  For example, before 1960, only type A and B botulism toxins were tracked.  Since then type E botulism was recognized as a hazard and connected to consumption of marine products (fish and marine mammals), which added 67 cases out of the 444 reported in 1950-1996.

This again shows the problem of evaluating historical statistics.  Type E botulism may have been a significant problem earlier, but it wasn't identified and tracked specifically until 1963 when a major outbreak occurred involving various kinds of seafood (especially smoked fish, where one incident resulted in 17 illnesses and 5 deaths).  This follows the general pattern of botulism over the centuries -- first it was related to blood sausage, then sausage in general, then preserved meats, then low-acid canned foods (first meats, then fruits and vegetables), etc.  As the incidence from one cause went down due to new standards for prevention, another type or cause would be identified, which would lead to an increase in reported cases when doctors made the association with new foods and ran more tests.  And botulism concerns have since expanded further, with the identification of infant botulism in the 1970s (now by far the leading cause of botulism in U.S. statistics, accounting for roughly 100 cases annually).  Thankfully, incidence of botulism in general in many countries in recent decades is quite low.

We'll probably never really know how many people may have died from botulism during the "experimental" era of food canning before 1920, but we do know that large numbers of people likely died from botulism in meat before modern curing was understood.  And the thing with botulism is -- even when treated with modern medicine, there's still a high fatality rate (5% or so).  If not recognized and treated immediately, the fatality rate may be 50% or more.  To me, that's justification enough for being extra cautious no matter how rare it is.


Are they the two main reasons why I never got a good steak crust?

Neither of those sounds like a big problem.

You say that you get your pan "really hot". It's nice to use an infrared thermometer to check how hot, but at the very least, you should check for the Leidenfrost effect: if you put a drop of water on the pan, it should skitter around without visibly boiling, and take several seconds to actually evaporate. That means your pan is at ~200 Celsius or higher.

The problem is, the moment you put your steak on the pan, that temperature drops precipitously, because the water in the steak will be boiling away. If your burner can't put out enough power, you won't be able to get a good crust no matter what the initial temperature is. If your burner puts out almost enough power, then using a cast iron pan can help because it has a high thermal mass to transfer to the steak, but even there you're limited. Always use the largest burner you have available, even if it's bigger than your pan.

Not letting the steak come up to room temperature is not a problem. Actually, it helps to have it just out of the refrigerator, because the surface of the steak can spend more time hot (and crusting up) before the center overcooks.

Only using a small amount of oil is probably not a problem. If you're using a non-stick pan, using more oil can help you get a more consistent crust rather than only parts of the steak crusting up. But the oil by itself won't make the difference between brown and grey.

Finally, if your primary concern is the crust, make sure you only flip the steak once. Flipping it multiple times helps you get more even cooking, but what you're looking for here is really uneven cooking. The first little while after you flip the steak, the bottom surface needs to come up to Maillard browning temperatures. The more you flip the steak, the more of the cooking time is wasted in that "getting ready to brown" stage.


Benefits of a cleaned/seasoned cast iron

I would say that rust, an uneven surface, and no shine are the traits of cast iron that has not been cared for.  It sounds like you are using a seasoned cast iron pan.  You do need to maintain it, or it will not stay that way.  (There are lots of questions and answers on the site about cast iron.  Just use the search bar.) The benefit of cast iron is heat retention, and the even conduction of heat.  A well-maintained pan will also develop a virtually non-stick surface.  In addition to having to deal with rust, a poorly maintained pan would lead to more sticking.


What exactly is Korean chili paste, aka 'gochujang'? Is there any way of making it at home?

It is a fermented chili paste made with rice and fermented bean paste.

You could make it at home if you can find all the ingredients. But it looks like a complex recipe and preparation.

For example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IqtT0HcXUE

Here's a simpler version (less traditional) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiWJor3DQgI

I would substitute with any other chili paste (sambal oelek...)


I'm brewing hard cider - what can I do with the yeast afterward?

I tried making bread once with leftover beer yeast.   It was the densest bread I've ever tasted.  Breadmaking not recommended.

You could try making vegemite.

  How to make Vegemite.

  Brewer's yeast is a good source of vitamin B, but live yeast tastes
  boring, it is poorly digested. Inactivated yeast lacks the
  disadvantages, but is still bland. The inventor of vegemite solved
  this problem using autolysis: a process where the yeast's own enzymes
  break it down.

  Spent brewer's yeast is sieved to get rid of hop resins, and washed to
  remove bitter tastes. Then it is suspended in water at a temperature
  greater than 37 C with no nutrients: the yeast cells die, and vitamins
  and minerals leach out. Then the proteolytic (protein-splitting)
  enzymes take over, breaking the yeast proteins down into smaller
  water-soluble fragments, which also leach out. The yeast cell membrane
  is unruptured during this time, and can be removed by centrifuging.
  The clear light brown liquid is then concentrated under a vacuum to a
  thick paste (the vacuum helps preserve flavours and vitamin B1,
  thiamine). It is seasoned with salt, and a small proportion of celery
  and onion extracts to increase the palatability.

From http://www.convictcreations.com/culture/foodwine.htm (Last section on page)


This answer is hopefully a work in progress, because this is a good way for me to make iced coffee to take to work in the morning and I don't know how to answer this question beyond experiementation. I don't really understand the molecular/particle-y science stuff behind it, but there is some science happening here lol. Hopefully someone else comes along with a better answer.

Emmymade described such science briefly at the end of her video that the micro-particles that form the instant coffee crystals become suspended in the liquid between the bubbles which grants the foam so much height and stability. She also tried making it with cocoa powder and matcha, since they're extremely fine powders, but those were not successful. I'd be curious to see if you could do something similar with kool-aid or instant tea powder, but I don't have any on hand, so I'm not sure. You can make a similar foam with dried milk powder, but it's not as stiff as the dalgona coffee foam.

As for sugar, I did indeed try a couple of experiments this morning related to the sugar, and sugar (or salt maybe) is required to get the full foam effect.

The basic dalgona foam, made with equal parts (1 teaspoon in my experiment this morning) coffee powder, sugar, and water will whip up to stiff peaks in a matter of minutes even using a hand whisk. I whisk things by hand a lot anyway, so I might have more speed/endurance than some, but it's still impressive. As I said in my comment, adding a little salt does not harm the foam.

I tried whipping up equal parts of instant coffee and water, and while I did get a foamy liquid.... it remained a sloshy liquid with bubbles that popped quickly. I could hear the foam breaking. It did not build up or lighten in color like the normal stuff. Adding sugar into it pretty much immediately stabilized it, causing it to lighten in color and build up serious volume.

I tried making a small batch of 2 teaspoons instant coffee to 1 teaspoon water, and while it was more stable than the equal parts coffee/water, it still never built up the same volume or really lightened in color. I got it to a soft peak-ish stage, but it still moved slowly across the bottom of the bowl, and the bubbles were visible. It was not a smooth marshmallow-y substance. But I did not hear the foam breaking down too much as I held it next to my ear.

I also tried adding a little heavy cream and vanilla to the basic 1:1:1 recipe, and... that failed completely. There was almost nothing left after I whisked it in for a minute. It maybe foamed up as much as the equal coffee/water experiment.

I tried adding a little vanilla to a batch, and while it did not destroy the foam, it did break it down a bit and looked coarser overall.

I tried adding a little cocoa powder to a batch, and like the vanilla, it did not catastrophically destroy the foam, but it did deflate it a little, and got a coarser texture overall.

I did make some with brown sugar which worked perfectly well, it lightened and blew up to stiff peaks like I wanted, but that's as far as I've gotten.

I don't have any artificial sweeteners on hand, but I might try making some with rice syrup or honey this evening just to see what happens.


Why did my whole milk go bad faster than skim milk?

Bad luck.

There isn't consensus on which would spoil faster.

Apparently there has been a controlled study that found that skim spoiled faster but the difference was slight. It would have to be in a controlled environment. At home, with all the other variables involved, it would look much more random.

Does whole milk spoil faster than skim milk?


Can I un-seal canned tomato sauce, and re-seal after further cooking?

We make a lot of sauces every year. I wouldn't try to do it over. If you know what its lacking just add it to your sauce as you use it. Sometimes bland sauce can be a good thing and offers you an open door to add what you want. If you're missing some flavors you like or don't have enough of it just add it for now with seasonings. Make a mental or written note for next year to try and zero in on what exactly you want to produce.


Will vacuum sealing an open bottle of wine make it like it was never opened?

The only way to get "like it was never opened" is not to open it.  But storing an opened wine bottle isn't a new question.  There are a whole range of products, which will keep the wine varying lengths of time.  From simple hand-vacuum pumps which can hold a day or two, to as-decanted nitrogen or argon replacement systems, which can add a week or two.

See http://www.wineenthusiast.com/serve-preserve/wine-preservation.asp?AfID=CJ for some product examples.  The longest holding I've personally played with is something like http://www.wineenthusiast.com/nitrotap-single-bottle-wine-service-preservation-system.asp, which prevents oxygen ever getting into the bottle.  However, even the bit of air between pulling the cork and inserting the spigot causes the wine to degrade within a week or two.

If you're looking to set up a bar, the nitrogen replacement systems can be found in multi-spigot configurations.  So you can have 4 or 8 bottles "open" at a time.


What's the white liquidy substance that can appear when cooking salmon?

That white stuff is albumen, the same protein that makes the white of chicken eggs.  The albumen is part of the salmon's blood, which means that your fillet was fresh.  A trick for dealing with it was developed by Bruno Goussault while collaborating with chef Michel Richard from Citronelle in DC: soak the salmon pieces in an ice cold brine. The article in the New York Times that told the story recommends soaking the salmon fillets for ten minutes in a 10% brine (by weight).  To make the brine, dissolve three tablespoons of Kosher salt for every cup of ice cold water and make as many cups as you need.


Plain flour or strong bread is there any difference when making a cake

Flours are different in their protein content. More protein means more gluten means more structure. Strong bread flour has a lot of protein, cake flour has very little, so a cake made with strong bread flour will not be as light and fluffy as with all purpose (medium protein) or cake flour. If all you have is the bread flour and you want to bake a cake, you can cut it with corn starch (see link below).

https://www.thekitchn.com/whats-the-difference-cake-flou-74565


Can I cook a slow cooker recipe on high instead of low, but for shorter time?

It will be safe and edible. It might not be quite as good.

Part of the appeal of slow cookers is just the convenience of leaving them unattended. The other appeal is low-slow cooking that blends flavors and melts connective tissue without burning anything.

Meat
Cooking things faster and hotter will not make the meat as tender as it would be- but it will still be cooked. If it is in small pieces the difference will not be as noticeable.
Obviously ground meat would be the same regardless of cooking time.

Beans (if you believe in beans in chili)
4 hours will be enough time to soften soaked beans. I'd say this is the biggest risk. Undercooked beans aren't fun to eat.
Soaked beans, canned beans, or no beans make this a non-issue.

Flavor melding
Chili benefits from time. Beans soak up flavors. Chili and onion balance out through the sauce.
I'll often make my chili a day in advance of serving it because it is so much better the next day. You're going to get less time so some of this will be lost.


How to dress sushi to better enhance all its flavours?

I remain extremely skeptical that there is a right or wrong way to dress, pick up, eat, or otherwise deal with sushi. A Google search for "is there a right way to eat sushi" turns up hundreds of pages, many with contradictory information.

If there is a "right" way, it's most certainly dictated by the locale or restaurant you're in or the people you're with. My advice is to do whatever you want, particularly if you're paying for the meal. If you're a guest, follow the lead of your hosts. But don't sweat it. Enjoy it!

UPDATE since the original question has been edited...

  what is the better way to dress sushi and sashimi.

"Better" is still difficult to define for everyone, and will vary by each person's taste. Something that "enhances" flavors for me may be completely unacceptable to you, and vice-versa. There's no accounting for taste! But since you made an effort to clarify your question, I am updating my answer accordingly.

Sometimes the "better" dressing is none at all. This is particularly true for Unagi or others that have some kind of sauce already applied (though I know some people who dip Unagi in soy sauce and claim it is great). I have a daughter with soy allergy, so she cannot use soy sauce at all and doesn't like wasabi. She enjoys eating salmon and tuna nigiri pieces completely plain. I've tried it myself, and with good, fresh fish it is really good.
I have heard of people dipping the pickled ginger in the soy sauce and using that as a kind of "brush" to gently apply soy sauce to the topping. That may be "better" if you are adept with chopsticks and enjoy pickled ginger along with soy.
Some people dip only the topping into the soy sauce, to avoid getting the rice saturated. This is a little easier to do if you use your fingers to pick up the sushi pieces (and according to some accounts this is perfectly acceptable for sushi) (but not sashimi).
Some people mix wasabi (sometimes, copious amounts) in with the soy sauce and dip the sushi into that mixture. Some suggest that soy + wasabi should be reserved for sashimi only.


Wikipedia suggests Pancetta which is another form of cured Italian bacon, usually without smoking. I think the primary thing you are looking for is cured but not smoked, as smoke will add a strong flavor that is completely missing in Guanciale.