There's 2 types of mozzarella, fresh and hard (also called low moisture). Fresh mozzarella is soft and packaged with whey or brine, it tears easily and can be squished between your fingers. It has a relatively short shelf life, usually within a couple of weeks of purchase. If you have this cheese then this sounds normal to me, even a couple of bubbles, if it smells fine and tastes fine I'd think it's safe to eat.

Hard mozzarella has been allowed to dry partially, and is generally sold in vacuum packaged blocks, with no liquid. It's very firm and shred-able with a grater. If you've bought this and you have liquid and bubbles in the package then I would get rid of it.


This depends on which type of omelet you want to make, I'll run through the three types I know how to make.

The thick Waffle House style omelet (it's the kind that poofs up and is about an inch thick all the way around, IHOP also serves this omelet) is achieved by beating the eggs and incorporating a LOT of air in to the mixture.  Restaurants do this by using a milkshake machine to whip the eggs.  This type of omelet is easy to flip and cook, you just put enough butter to coat the pan, pour off any excess and then pour your egg mixture in to the pan (you are going to have to use an omelet pan for this).  Let the omelet cook while occasionally swirling the pan in a circular motion.  When the omelet has cooked most of the way through flip by either the toss in the air and catch in the pan method (not for beginners!) or the fork and spatula method (place spatula underneath and hold omelet onto the spatula with a fork on one corner). This will yield a thick fluffy omelet but it can be hard to work enough air into the eggs at home.

The second type is the French omelet and it doesn't require flipping at all. The french omelet is what you see in fine dining brunches if you see it at all in the U.S.  This omelette is made by mixing your eggs and pouring the mixture into a medium low heat pan.  As it cooks you take a fork and pull the cooked egg off the bottom and into the center of the omelet. Here is a video that goes more in depth.

The third type is what I call the grandma omelet.  It's made in a frying pan instead of an omelet pan and features a fairly flat egg wrapped around some cheese and other toppings.  For this omelet you need medium heat.  You should coat the pan with butter and pour in the egg mixture to a heated pan.  Let cook for a minute or two, then swirl the uncooked egg to the outside of the pan use a fork to lift the very edge to allow the uncooked egg to take the place of the cooked next to the pan.  Let the egg cook till desired doneness (side note: your omelet should and will have a small amount of uncooked but heated egg, it should be not runny, but still not be entirely set) and add toppings and fold over.  Then serve.

To address your scrambled egg problem, you need to let the egg set more before attempting the flip and lowering the heat on your pan will take care of the burning. Just remember that eggs are extremely delicate and respond better to lower heat and close attention.

Also the names are just the ones I use in my head, if somebody knows the correct terminology, let me know and I'll update to reflect it.


I think it would be more correct to say that garlic turns bitter when it is overcooked or burned; a touch of browning is not going to do that.  Since it is usually sliced, minced, or crushed, overcooking it is easy to do in high heat methods.

Garlic, like many of the aliums family (including onions, shallots, scallions and so on) can present different flavors depending on how it is cooked.

The different cooking methods in the many cuisines of the world bring out different aspects of the flavor or use it differently.  Most cooking methods reduce the sharpness or pungency of  raw garlic.  How long you cook depends on how much of the sharpness you desire.

Raw, it has a sharp, pungent flavor
When sauteed or fried quickly at the beginning of a dish (common in both Asian and Western methods), it releases its flavor into the cooking oil, which will then permeat the entire dish with its perfume, as well as cooking the pieces through so that they are softer and more palatable.  The edges might brown a little bit, but they will not become a deep sienna color, indicating the burned flavor is present.
Roasted, the garlic mellows and can be used in much larger quantities for its aromatic qualities, without the pungency.

Recipes where it is fried until crisp will direct you to only go to a light brown (for example, as in this recipe for gnoccii with crispy garlic—and of course, the garlic must be sliced quite thinly to do this.  The goal is to get it crisp before it is overcooked, and avoid the burned flavors.

Garlic is normally added to recipes at the beginning of their preparation, in order to allow its flavor to permeat the entire dish.  however, in a salad dressing or similar (especially in a raw applicaiton), it may be added right before service so that it is at its sharpest without the ... stale... taste that some aliums can get when chopped but not cooked for a longer time.


How do you reduce static in a coffee grinder?

My grounds bin has a lid. So while the grounds still collect static, they don't fly all over the place when I remove the bin from the grinder.

Giving the bin few sharp taps on the counter top prior to opening seems to shake off most of what clings to the top and sides. Then I tap out the grounds, wipe out the bin with a napkin, and I'm ready for the next morning.

Beyond that, try switching up your coffee. The cheap "8 O'Clock" stuff I keep on reserve is terribly staticy, while the beans I roast myself don't have nearly the trouble. I tend to enjoy a lighter roast, so keep that in mind - you might benefit from grinding beans with just a bit higher moisture content (of course, if you have a strong preference for dark roasts, this doesn't help much).


Keeping the taste consistent in hummus after initial cooking

Fresh-made hummus, without any preservatives added, will usually start to spoil after a couple of hours. This is actually perfectly normal behaviour, as the warm protein and fat rich environment is perfect for some microscopic friends to breed in.

This is actually why restaurant hummus is always so much better than supermarket hummus, which needs to be preserved to last.

The best thing you can do is to refrigerate the hummus immediately, to slow down the activity of the bacteria.
It may also help to add a bit more lemon juice to make the environment more acid.

Note that the maximum this will get you is 24-36 hours more. Don't expect it to last longer than that without serious preservatives.


There really isn't another name for Dutch processed cocoa. You could perhaps look at the ingredients or label and search for some reference to alkalization. Cocoa powder, Dutched or natural, consists of a single ingredient: cocoa. The difference is that Dutched cocoa has an extra step in the manufacturing process.

Normal cocoa powder is created from cocoa beans. These beans are fermented, roasted, shelled, and then ground into a paste known as chocolate liquor. This is roughly 50/50 cocoa butter (fat) and cocoa solids. At this step it is can be molded and sold as unsweetened baking chocolate. To make cocoa powder the liquor is hydraulically pressed to remove ~75% of the fat, and then pulverized into cocoa powder.

Dutched cocoa powder has an extra step before the shelled beans are ground into liquor. They are soaked in an alkaline solution of potassium carbonate.

Dutched cocoa was created in the 19th century by a Dutchman named Coenraad J. van Houten. Van Houten had invented the method of using a hydraulic press to defat chocolate liquor. Hot chocolate in these times would have a fatty greasy scum floating on the top of the beverage. Removing much of the fat prevented this. However, it also made the drink much harsher, acidic, and gave it a much lighter color.

Van Houten's idea was to counteract the cocoa's natural acidity (pH ~5.4) by soaking it in an alkaline solution. This neutralized the acids in the cocoa raising the pH to neutral (7) or higher depending on the duration of the soak. The higher pH also has the added benefit of darkening the cocoa; the higher it goes, the darker it gets.

Now, you might think that mellowing out the cocoa would be undesirable for the flavor. However this has been shown to not be the case. It turns out that the very acidic nature of natural cocoa can actually mask many of the natural undertones of flavor in the chocolate. Chocolate is much like wine and has hundreds of flavors that make up its flavor profile. These include sour, bitter, astringent, fruity, figgy, nutty, floral, smoky, and may more. Dutching only targets the bitter, astringent, sour and fruity undertones allowing the remaining ones to really showcase the chocolate.

There is a bit of misinformation that floats amongst bakers that the pH of the cocoa can affect the leavening of the baked good. Many recipes will actually sternly suggest using either Dutched or natural cocoa depending. This makes sense since leavening is a sort of balancing act that involves both acids and bases. However, it has been experimentally shown that this does not actually occur, and baked goods made with both Dutched and natural cocoa powder showed no differences in leavening.

So to actually address your questions. Again, no there isn't another name for Dutched cocoa, but it can't hurt to check for alkalized verbage. There is (should) also no additional ingredient that would identify a cocoa powder as Dutched. The key property it provides is simply chocolate flavor.

This answer is adapted from the Jan. 1, 2005 Cook's Illustrated review of cocoa powder. Their results showed that without fail Dutched cocoa was voted superior to natural cocoa in every single blind taste test including: pudding, shortbread, devil's food cake, and hot chocolate (which was masked by a sippy-top so reviewers could not see the tell-tale color).

If the cost doesn't make you do a double take (it's not really that expensive considering the quantity). I highly suggest you buy a 1 kg (2.2 lb) bag of Callebaut Cocoa Powder. This was the winner of the blind taste test performed by Cook's Illustrated. I must agree that it will change your baked goods for the better like you would not believe.


What is the cons of using high temperature/low water to cook curry?

One con of cooking this way, high temp and less water, is that your curry is much more likely to burn.  Both lower temperatures and more water slow the cooking, making it easier to find the right spot where everything's cooked through and done, instead of overreaching the time or not stirring quite enough and finding the bottom burned.  It maybe can be done, if you're very attentive and keep stirring and measured everything just right - but it is riskier.

Another con is that longer cooking often affects dishes differently.  Cooking longer at lower temperatures gives flavors more time to meld, with ingredients reacting to each other or breaking down differently.  Depending on your ingredients or the dish's texture the spices may distribute unevenly if they don't have enough time to equalize (one reason stew, for example, does very well with longer cooking times).  Cooking at higher temperature for less time may also give you a very different effect - think garlic sauteed in oil versus garlic roasted with oil, very different flavors.

Likewise, using less water may mean your ingredients cannot mix as freely, so they interact with each other less and it takes more time for the dish to reach the same melded flavor effect.  It is also a safer limiting factor - if the powder is cooked before enough water is evaporated to make it thick, the extra water can be simmered off.  If the water simmers down first, then the powder will not be finished cooking - which might be a bigger problem.  It will also be harder to correct, and will take more time since any water added at that point will have to heat before the powder can finish cooking.


Milk + fruit mixed together will curdle at some point, the more acidic the fruit, the faster.

Only for very mild fruit like bananas the mix will stay stable for hours or even a day in the fridge. Strawberry is somewhat in the middle and citrus fruit will curdle instantly. And while that effect is desirable in other use cases (think paneer, for example), you probably don't want that in a smoothie.

The right choice of fruit can mitigate that effect and full fat milk is a bit more stable than skim (could be the fat globules?). Also storage times should be considered: what was ok at home can have turned into a lumpy mass by the time you want to enjoy it in the office.

If you are not set on using fresh milk, the acidic varieties like yogurt or buttermilk are a more stable substitute, perhaps thinned a bit.

You could skip the milk entirely, many recipes do, and if it's about the protein, add a power or simply eat a protein-rich food with the smoothie - a handful of almonds goes a long way, for example.


Why is ground beef red on the bottom also?

Because oxygen is still carried through the packaging, but it doesn't travel very far in the meat. This is normal.


Can one eat a balanced diet if one only cooks once a week?

The types of foods that reheat well are also quite suitable for being balanced in one main dish. Generally speaking, dishes with stuff in sauce freeze/chill and reheat well. So stew, curry, chilli, ratatouille etc. should work. Any of those can be made with plenty of veg, which is important if you're aiming for a balanced diet. An accompanying carbohydrate side can often be cooked in a similar time to reheating the main dish, so this doesn't need to be included (unless you want to of course). From the point of view of sticking to nutritional guidelines you can do much better this way than buying ready prepared stuff, and cheaper.

Freezing in single portions is important; I tend to use containers intended for takeaway meals.  Freezing means after 2 or 3 sessions of cooking you've got a variety of meals.  I tend to defrost in the fridge, allowing 24 hours.

Personally I batch cook about 5-6 portions most Sundays, but don't rely on reheating these every night. Quick simple meals (like a stir fry or an omelette) add a nice variety.


Is it possible to sweeten chocolate without making it gritty?

Doing both is possible, but there is no point. For both, you need a conche, and this is a good contender for a gadget not worth its shelf space in a home kitchen. For a good chocolate, you have to mix the melted combination of base chocolate and additional ingredients for hours (Wikipedia says 6 for low quality, up to 78 for best quality), and this is what the conche does for you. For a nice structure and shine, you also want to temper the chocolate afterwards and cool it under appropriate conditions.

Chocolate is made by pressing roasted cocoa beans to cocoa liquor (consists of cocoa butter and cocoa solids). The dry remainder of the beans is then ground to cocoa powder (and sometimes also deacidified in a Dutching process). The cocoa butter can be separated from the liquor. The pure liquor can be tempered and sold as high-end baking chocolate, also called "unsweetened chocolate" in the US (low-end blocks of "baking chocolate" are mostly cocoa powder mixed with hydrogenated vegetable fat). To create bars of chocolate, chocolate creators like Lindt put cocoa liquor together with sugar in a conche to create different grades of dark chocolate (US name: semi-sweetened chocolate), or also add milk or milk solids to create milk chocolate. Lower grade semisweet chocolate has cocoa powder added, so a 72% chocolate will always have 72% cocoa bean products and 28% sugar, but depending on the brand, the ratio of cocoa solids and cocoa butter will vary, which will have effect on its behavior in confectionery (a higher ratio of cocoa butter will produce a smoother chocolate with more shine).

If you insist on changing the darkness of a chocolate you have and achieve reasonable quality, you have to throw together the needed ingredients, conche them, and temper them. For example, you could start with 100 g 60% semi-sweet dryish chocolate, add 80 g cocoa butter and 20 g cocoa powder, and you will end up with 200 g of smooth 80% semi-sweet chocolate, if you do it right. Given the prices for high quality raw materials, energy requirements and space taken up by a conche, and the availability of different grades of chocolate, I don't see any reason to go through all of this instead of directly buying good quality 80% chocolate.

This all assumes that the final product you want is pure chocolate. If you are making, say, a chocolate flavored custard, where you mix ganache into custard, and you have a chocolate bar darker than what the recipe specifies, you can get a perfectly good solution by first dissolving sugar in the warm cream and making the ganache with it, and then adding it to the custard. Other recipes which work with chocolate mixes (e.g. cake layer batters) function in a similar way - add your ingredient (cocoa powder if your chocolate is too light, sugar if it is too dark) to a wet ingredient which will dissolve it, and then mix the melted chocolate in as usual.


When cooking grains with vegetables, should I cook them together or separately

I would cook them in different pots.

Most of the time they will take different time to cook; heck, even different vegetables take different time to cook, so cook the vegetable in batches.


Guar gum has a particular grassy/earthy/beany smell, whereas xanthan gum is much closer to odorless.


The instructions on www.mymccanns.com that I can find read:

Quick Soak Method
One of the quickest and easiest ways to prepare McCann’s® Steel Cut Irish Oats is to soak the oats overnight. Before going to bed, boil 4 cups of water in a pot. Then add one cup of oats and simmer for 1 minute. Cover the pot, cool, and store overnight in the refrigerator. The next morning reheat over low heat, stirring occasionally.

Although these are instructions for overnight soaking, they aren’t instructions for ‘overnight oats’ that are popular to eat cold. Was that what you were aiming for? I read this as a process to reduce the 30 minute cooking time they suggest for ‘Irish porridge’ further down the page. As you can see the final sentence tells you reheat the oats next morning. Presumably at that stage the oats will swell and thicken the remaining liquid to form porridge.
If these are the instructions you were following, they will not yield ‘overnight oats’. I think you really need rolled oats for that.


How to remove mutton smell while cooking?

I am one of those people who really doesn't like the smell of mutton/lamb for at least the first couple of hours if I'm making any type of curry.

Whilst cooking from raw, I'm not sure you can do more than cook in a well-ventilated area.

However, for your final dish, there's a 'cheat' I use, which started as being borrowed from an Indian Restaurant trick known as the 3-pot method. [Oddly, this trick, which I've known for 30 years, seems to have not a single Google hit]

If you really want the smell to be gone, do this the day before...
Cook the mutton separately in a thin 'curry broth' using minimal ingredients, maybe just a little onion & oil to fry your bhoona/bhogar spices in at the start, then add some generic curry powder & simmer gently for a minimum of 45 mins, though I prefer 3 or 4 hours so any fat really renders down.
Strain off the meat & you can then either discard that 'broth', or use it to make further masala gravy/sauce base, & allow the meat to cool separately. Save in a sealed container in the fridge overnight, then the next day add the meat to your actual dish.


How do you develop the knife skills to properly use a Chinese cleaver?

One important thing to keep in mind is that the blade always stays against the knuckles of your opposite hand to control it. That is true with all knives but I find it is especially important with a cleaver. (Well probably except when you are doing giant hacking moves, in which case your other hand should be nowhere in the vicinity).


Taste and smell are good indicators, and most companies take a very safe approach with labeling, and are quite conservative in their estimation of expiration. Dairy products tend to spoil in a manner that isn't stealthy (no sneaky botulism*). I might eat it, if I was really in the mood for cream cheese.

But you have to ask yourself, "Do I feel lucky?"

Well, do ya, punk?

*Probably. There have been scares, but the incidence of botulism in dairy products is vanishingly small. Dairy comes with its own suite of microfauna that outcompetes nearly all other types of bacteria.


The stuff at the top is fat, as oil floats on water (arguably one of the best things ever for a chef :))

The stuff at the bottom, is a collection of proteins, meat juices and all other sediments left in the stock after straining.

Personally I'd scrape any fat from the top. Then depending on the solidity of my stock I'd either ladle out the clear stuff from above the sediment or if set well enough I'd turn the container over so I had a big lump of jelly on my counter and slice the bottom portion off with a warm knife and discard.
It'll not taste great if at all and will make your soup, gravy or broth a little grainy.

On a side note, 5 days in the fridge is rather long. Food hygiene wise you'd usually not keep cooked meat products much longer than 3 days though a boiled stock will likely last a little longer. I'm not 100% sure what the actual guidelines are but I live to a 3 day rule on everything cooked in my work kitchen to keep the 'environmental health organization' happy...


When should one ice christmas fruit cakes

It's not unknown for me to keep a slice until April (well wrapped so it doesn't dry out). All that happens is that the icing gets a bit hard. I use fondant icing, and it takes at least a couple of months to get as hard as royal icing does almost immediately. This is with bought marzipan; if you make your own I don't know how well it would keep.

From this I'd say there's no such thing as too late except setting time, and too early would have to be over a month in advance. I also allow a day between marzipan and icing.  This is mainly as a drier marzipan surface is easier to ice onto than when it's freshly applied.

Some of the early feeds (I use sherry) can be from the top if it's not iced. You take away this possibility by icing early. You probably shouldn't feed it from the top just before covering as it may still be damp.  You can still feed from underneath after icing.


What kind of sandwich can be made with Shredded Beef?

Don't know what the flavor profile of the shredded beef, but a nice flavorful hummus (Sabra is my favorite brand) is one of my favorite alternates to mayonnaise in beef sandwiches. Sounds unusual, but it's a great textural and flavor compliment.


How to make chapattis round and of same thickness?

If you are having trouble rolling dough to a uniform thickness then you might consider putting training wheels on your rolling pin until you get more practiced.

http://www.amazon.com/Rolling-Hills-Pin-Rings/dp/B000I1ZXBC
(I don't know anything about this particular brand.)

These rubber bands fit on your rolling pin and act as spacers so you can enforce a strict thickness upon your dough. They are, of course, useful for rolling out many things besides chapati.

To reiterate what @rumtscho and @bob said. Your dough should be of a uniform consistency if you want to roll it out in a uniform manner.

As far as a perfect circle goes, turn it often and don't roll too much in one direction. It just takes some practice.


Substituting olive oil for butter may have been part of the problem. Olive oil is considerably thinner. "Fresh cream" may also have been problem, since (depending on country) things labeled as "cream" may contain significantly more moisture than heavy cream.
I don't think that letting the potatoes sit overnight would have been a problem. In fact, I would suspect it would work in your favor. But the big, heavy, cold glass dish would really work against you. The way these things are meant to "work" is that the surface rapidly dries and gels, keeping the shape while the heat spreads to the inside. In a metal dish, the bottoms would have heated and dried first, because the large area of the dish would have conducted heat to them. But your refrigerated glass dish would have held down the temperature on the bottom of the potatoes for much of the cooking process, as the mixture heated and thinned.
EDIT: I also see in comments that you left out the egg yolks. Don’t do that. They’re necessary.


As Megasaur said, the spice cinnamon (or often, cassia, which is quite similar) is the inner bark of a tree.  As a natural product, there is going to be some variation in the color in any case.

I would look quite closely at the texture and grain of the differently colored pieces compared to the more normal pieces.  If they show the same pattern or structure, you probably just have normal color variation.     If they are substantially different, then perhaps the product should be discarded or returned--or just those pieces picked out.

The purpose of this inspection, such as it is (and I am not botanical expert) is try to determine if the different pieces are still the inner bark, and not something else.  I would suggest only buying spices from a reputable source in the future.


How can I use a "cook for 3-4 hours" slow cooker recipe when I'm away for 8+ hours?

It depends on the type of recipe.  While paging through a slow cooker cookbook, I see relatively few recipes recommending only 3-4 hours on low heat.  Of those, I think most fall into some categories:

(1) Drinks (mulled cider, etc.) -- most of these will probably not be harmed by extending the cooking time, though in some cases you might want to tone down spices a bit.

(2) Dishes using mostly fruits or vegetables that will turn to "mush" over 8 hours -- you might try starting with bigger chunks or pieces and perhaps refrigerate them (or even freeze, if it would be appropriate) before beginning.  However, you might want to avoid starting with frozen or very cold ingredients when the dish involves stuff that tends to grow a lot of bacteria (e.g., raw meat).

(3) Dishes that begin with a lot of "pre-processed" ingredients (can of soup or dehydrated mix + precooked, presliced meat + canned vegetables) -- try beginning with less processed ingredients, like fresh raw vegetables, raw large hunks of meat, etc.  If safe, refrigerated or frozen ingredients could again help.

(4) Desserts -- these will often be the most tricky.  Some may be okay simmering for a long time, others probably not.  If it's safe with the ingredients, again you may try starting with cold or frozen ingredients to slow cooking for a few hours.

Whether you could convert a specific recipe really depends on the type of dish.  For things that you want to end up very tender or mushy or liquid anyway, you can probably cook it for 8 hours instead of 4 with few changes.

But in some cases the conversion may just be impossible, unless you can make use of a timer as mentioned in another response to start the slow cooker 3-4 hours before you'll come home.  Even then, be sure it's safe for the food to sit at room temperature for a long time.


Is there a comprehensive overview of food colors?

The EU has a list of food additives in which everything is given a number (so you don't have to deal with companies trying to hide things using alternate names):

https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/sanco_foods/main/?sector=FAD

Many of the colorings are under Group II and Group III, but many other items (eg, fruit and vegetable juices) can be used as coloring, so you can't just look in those categories.


It won't be dry unless you overcook it. The pumpkin flesh will give off steam and keep the meat moist.
The meat will pick up some pumpkin taste from the pumpkin, but it won't brown. So you're trading the flavor of browned meat for the flavor of pumpkin.
If you pre-cook the meat, you can get the flavor of browned meat along with the flavor of pumpkin. As Max pointed out, the pumpkin may not survive the long cooking time required by starting with raw meat, so using pre-cooked meat is probably a good idea anyway.
Here's a recipe that uses ground beef, which is first sauteed with onions and green peppers, then tomato sauce and spices added. The pumpkin is also partially-cooked. Then the pre-cooked meat/sauce mixture is stuffed inside the pre-cooked pumpkin, and the whole thing is baked for another hour.
The final cooking presumably allows the flavors to blend and also finishes cooking the pumpkin. The moisture from the pumpkin should prevent the already cooked meat from getting dry and overcooked.


How should I store chilli for freezing and later defrosting?

For meat/veg in sauce recipes I anyways freeze in boxes, and often defrost in the microwave. I tend to buy boxes that are meant for microwave use but don't fuss about this (larger quantities work well in ice cream tubs).

If you know in advance that you're going to eat it, you can defrost in the fridge. If not, aim to defrost quite slowly in the microwave and transfer to something else (e.g. Pyrex) before it gets hot. A larger container is good because it gives you room to stir, and that's a good idea when defrosting. Even the best plastic microwave containers can get very stained with hot oily tomatoes, and with others you might worry about leaching


I want to explain few things about dietary fiber.

Soluble fiber is not digested in the small intestine but it can be fermented in the large intestine by normal intestinal bacteria into nutrients (which are absorbed) and gases. Soluble fiber can have 1-3 Cal/g (sugar, starch and other digestible carbohydrates have 4 Cal/g) and can cause bloating and gas. For exact calorie value of the exact fiber, you need to check the Nutrition Facts labels. Or you can check in MyFitnessPal, which says that, for example, 1 tsp of glucomannan has 10 Calories.

Examples of soluble fiber (naturally present or added to foods):

Fructooligosaccharides (FOS), inulin, galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS), isomalto-oligosaccharides (IMO), lactosucrose, mannan-oligosaccharides (MOS)
Beta-glucan (in whole barley and oats)
Pectin (in apples, bananas...)
Gums: acacia (arabic), beta-mannan, carob (locust bean), fenugreek, glucomannan (konjac), karaya, tragacanth, guar, tara gum
Resistant starches (in potatoes)
Algae and seaweeds agar, alginate, carrageenan
Other: arabynoxylan

From the digestion viewpoint, sugar alcohols (isomalt, maltitol, mannitol, sorbitol, xylitol) are similar to soluble fiber; they have ~2 Cal/g, except from erythritol, which has close to zero calories.

Insoluble fiber is not digested in the small intestine and not fermented in the large intestine, so it has practically zero calories and does not cause gas.

Examples of insoluble fiber:

Cellulose (in whole grains, in cabbage family of vegetables, in fruit skins...), hemicellulose and methylcellulose (as an added thickener)
Lignin (in wheat bran, flaxseed...)

Many of these fibers are available in markets. Before buying, find the info about "relative sweetness."

Here's the source with links to all individual fibers.

Here's an one page comprehensive article about Texture modifying agents, such as gelatin, corn starch, pectin, guar gum, methylcellulose, etc.


Can you pop microwave popcorn on a stove?

After I found the pack of microwave popcorn again I decided to do a quick search on the English web.

I found that the corn in the bag is just normal popcorn mixed with some fake butter and that there'd be no issues popping it on the stove.

Then I looked for good ways of popping corn on a stove and found an excellent video with step-by-step instructions.

Find a suitable pot with a good lid.
Transfer the corn to a bowl (because it can be tricky to get it out of the bag).
Pour some oil in the pot, covering the entire bottom.
Put 2 corns in the pot.
Put the pot on the burner and set it to medium-high (7/9).
Wait for the 2 corns to pop.
Put the rest of the corns in the pot and put on the lid.
Shake the pot and continue to shake it every 10 seconds.
When there's 1-2 seconds between pops you're done!

Then season with butter, salt, or whatever you want.

The result was perfect! Even better than if you'd have put it in the microwave!


Or maybe I'm supposed to dump all these things into the sifter at once and then sift until it's empty?

Bingo.

  Bonus points if you can tell me if I still need to stir ingredients which I have 'sifted together' in order to mix them.

Nope. The sifting process and subsequent stirring in of other ingredients should do the job just fine.


Overheated stainless saucepan - food now sticks

Googling "Stellar non-stick stainless steel saucepan", I read that it has a coating of polytetrafluoroethylene or PTFE - Teflon being one of the brand names people are most familiar with for this product. Stellar Non-stick Cookware reads

  Never use a non-stick pan on full heat - overheating it will almost certainly damage the coating. ln fact, many more nonstick pans are damaged by being overheated than by being scratched.

Sorry to say but non-stick coatings that have been over-heated are damaged and can't be salvaged.


Its much like a frozen Shrimp, definetly better defrosting first, either in a cold water bath or leaving them in the fridge. If they are individualy frozen they should defrost really fast in cold water.

Grilling is my favorite way to have them, they are amazing and easy to do. I would think that broil/bake/saute methods would be tastier than boiling.


When "sorting" lentils, what exactly am I looking for?

It is not unheard of for small pebbles, or pieces of the pod the lentils came in to find their way into the drying process.

There is also occasionally a lentil (or bean) that was a bit dodgy before it was dried. These usually appear as discolored lentils, which should be thrown away. It is rare for more than three or four to appear in a pound of lentils though, and the drying means that one bad one doesn't affect the rest.

The same is true for beans and chickpeas too, but is rarer the larger the beans get.


Will agitated already set custard re-set again?

No, it will not set again at all.

The explanation behind it: The custard is not a gel, it is a mixture of proteins, fat globules and other stuff swimming in a liquid (or maybe gel?). You start off with normally folded proteins, which during heating lose their quarternary structure and "hook" each other, thus creating a kind of mesh, filled with the fat emulsion. Once you break that mesh apart by agitation, it will not reform at all, since you cannot refold the proteins.


Do you mean sautee? Or deep fry?

Typical deep fry recipe would be to incorporate spices into the flour: add your salt, pepper, paprika, etc to the batter, then fry.

If you sautee, your chicken strips should be seasoned like follows: first, rub in a small to medium amount of kosher salt (not table salt). Let sit for 15+ minutes to season / brine the meat. Best would be a water brine, but I'm guessing that's too fussy for you.

Now, cook up the chicken strips in the pan. Most dry spices I could imagine adding could go in towards the end of the sautee, stuff like cayenne and so on. Garlic or onions would be added first before the chicken, and cooked until soft, but not too brown.


Amount (percentage of sodium in meat being cooked) of sodium left in water (broth) after cooking meat

You have 2 options to measure the amount of salt in the soup. Measure the salt content directly by weight, or measure the electrical conductivity of the broth.

For either solution you need to filter the soup as much as possible preferable until it is almost clear.

Solution 1: Cook the filtered soup until it is dry and stops smoking, weigh the leftover residue that would be mostly salt.

Solution 2: Get a meter that detects the mineral content by testing electrical conductivity. Get something like this http://amzn.to/2u8pdwM and you can calculate the approximate amount of salt from that reading.


Can I make cranberry sauce from frozen cranberries and re-freeze it?

Yes you can.

I see no reason otherwise.


Does this picture accurately describe different kind of coffee?

It's the order of pouring, not how the drink looks. The espresso is a shot, like a measure for fully automatic machines like the ones they have in Starbucks. In fact, I think I have seen the very poster in some coffee chain shop.


Depending on your cooking method you shouldn't have any problem with the joint drying out.  By it's very nature, a joint contains a lot of connective tissue.  That connective tissue will gelatinize under a slow roast and make the meat come out extremely juicy.  The best way to do this is going to be a lot of low dry heat (like the kind you get in your oven thats set to about 200-250*F).  You could also slow cook it, as in a crock pot, but only if you don't want slices.  BTW, if you want a crust on that bad boy, just kick your oven up to five hundred when the roast gets to about ten degrees from where you want it, and it should crust up nicely.

Finally, don't forget that all large pieces of meat are going to keep cooking even after you remove them from the heat so make sure that you take that into consideration when deciding what temp to yank it out at.


The standard espresso drink is the double espresso (a double espresso shot).  Although you can get single or triple espressos, if you are comparing quality, the double espresso is the standard.  Regardless of which type of shot you order, if you are comparing quality across different cafes, you should always order the same thing (ie don't order a single at one cafe and a double at another).

Once again for standardization, I would recommend ordering a double at each one.

My explanation of good espresso will be about straight espresso (no milk, no sugar) in an espresso mug/cup.

Here are some characteristics of a quality double shot:

Temperature:

The espresso should be quite hot when served.  If it is only lukewarm or warm right after it is made, then the barista did not heat the cup that it was served in.
It should be to the temperature where it is too hot to drink (for most people).  It should only take a minute or so to cool off.  Perhaps two minutes.

Crema:

There should be a nice layer of crema on top of the espresso (a few millimeters thick, completely covering the espresso).  This comes from the release of carbon dioxide when the espresso is extracted under pressure.
The color should be golden-brown to dark brown for a double shot.
The color will not always be uniform, it will sometimes be slightly lighter where the shot actually poured in the spot on the crema.
The crema should remain for at least three - five minutes if not longer.

Taste:

The espresso should be bitter, but not too bitter (high levels of bitterness are more characteristic of espresso long shots).
It should be rich, but not too rich (again, high levels of richness are more characteristic of espresso ristretto shots).
It should NOT be sour.  If it is sour, it has been sitting for too long before being served or was over-extracted.
It should not taste watery, this is usually a characteristic of under-extraction.

Smell:

Hard to describe for espresso and the aroma will vary a lot.  One thing to avoid is a 'sour' smell, which usually indicates a sour taste, as described above, or that the coffee being used is inherently too acidic.

Consistency:

Espresso is going to be thicker and more viscous than regular drip coffee, but it won't be syrupy.  When you are done your espresso, the drop or two that remain at the bottom of the cup, when dried should leave a distinct brown residue on the bottom of the cup.

Notes, and other things to keep in mind:

You will have to remember that different cafes will use different varieties of beans for making espresso, so this is going to affect the flavor.
Different cafes use different amounts of ground espresso and different amounts of water when preparing their espresso.  The industry standard is 2 oz (about 60 milliliters) for a double shot, but in my cafe we do our double shots to 3 oz.
Most importantly, learning to recognize good espresso is an experienced based endeavor, just like with wine, beer, or food.

On a personal note, I love to do this with cafes as well!  I always judge the quality of a cafes espresso and ability by ordering my favorite drink: a double espresso long.  In fact, I am going to a new cafe to do it today!!

A Lovely Looking Cup of Espresso:


How to conserve natural fruit juices without alcohol?

This is basically making must but not adding yeast to it and making wine.

I would do one of three things to your juice:

Boil the juice(must), or heat to 85 deg C for 15 min, then bottle into sterilised bottles.
Treat with a Campden Tablet, then again bottle into sterilised bottles.
Pasteurise after bottling as EZ suggests.


Are eggs left in car trunk for 3 days safe to eat?

Would you risk getting sick for ~ $4.  It's not like you left a tin of Beluga caviar in the trunk for 3 days.  Toss them!


A gel is any liquid (usually) or gaseous medium suspended in a solid three-dimensional mesh which entraps the medium so that it does not flow.

By way of (somewhat flawed analogy) think of a giant role of bubble wrap.  Its mostly air.  But the plastic keeps the air from flowing at a large scale.

Gels can range from very soft to very hard.  New modern aero-gels have fascinating properties.

Gelatin is a protein formed when collagen (a connective protein in animals) is heated under moist conditions.  Gelatin forms cross-linked networks exceedingly well, and therefore is a wonderful gelling agent.

The name has also taken to mean the gel created from gelatin and a water-based liquid like stock or sugary flavored water. You may have guessed by now that gels in general take their name from gelatin.

So the specific answer to the first part of your question is:  gels are the general category, and gelatin (in the second sense) is a specific kind of gel.

I have never heard the term gellification.  The only verb I am familiar with is to gel.  The process is gelatinization or (more familiar to me), just gelling.

In those links in Wikipedia for gel, gelatin, collagen, and areogel you will find out much more.


How to tell if my young starter is mature?

A good rule of thumb as to when a starter has enough oomph to raise a loaf is whether it will float in water.

I can take the properties of my starter pretty much for granted these days, but when I was making it from scratch I made sure to test a spoon of the portion that I was discarding for its flotation properties.

If you feel your starter is not making progress I would suggest two things:

Keep it slightly warmer. The method at https://www.sourdoughhome.com/starting-a-starter-my-way/ which I more or less followed, suggests a temperature range of 18-30 degrees C, so your 20 degrees is at the lower end of that.
Discard a lower proportion. If your starter isn't racing away and exhausting its food supply, it may help to build its population if you follow the SourdoughHome recommendation to discard only half of your starter at each feed and replenish with 50g each of flour and water.
Check that your flour is as fresh as possible and consider switching to fully wholemeal until you get more activity going on, the meal being more likely to carry the necessary yeasts and bacteria, apparently.
experiment with a different water supply, perhaps bottled spring water; some people report that chlorinated supplies are problematic for starters while others have no problem, there may be variations in the exact chemicals used.


I want to invest in some hotel pans for home cooking, what size and quantities should I buy?

Hotel pans are primarily used in institutional settings because everything is already made to fit them. Steam tables, prep coolers, etc, are all made to fit hotel pans and their fractional sizes. While I agree with the comments that they aren't generally the best pan suited to many tasks, they are great because they are fairly inexpensive and can be stacked and nested so easily.

There are not, however, any specific sizes that you must have. Even restaurants only buy sizes that they need for specific tasks. For instance, I have worked very few places that had more than one or two full sized hotel pans, as those are usually only used as the water-holding layer of a steam table (or occasionally to do roasts and the like). Basically, get the sizes that you think you will use. For instance, if nothing bigger than a 1/2 pan will fit in your oven, don't get any full pans. If you primarily want them for refrigerated storage, only get the plastic cold table pans and lids in sizes that will fit in your refrigerator.

If you are primarily using them for storage, I'd highly recommend getting Cambro or Carlisle storage containers instead. They come in standardized sizes, have color coded lids, and nest neatly. They also have snug fitting lids, which hotel pans lack. The plastic cold table pans generally have loose lids that work in institutional settings for things that won't be stored longer than a few hours, but wouldn't be practical at home.


How can I know when my yogurt is ready (in a generic, basic, non-us yogurt maker)?

According to http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Yogurt, you can you tell if your yogurt is ready by "gently jiggling one of the containers . . . the yogurt will not move if it is ready and you can take it from the yogurt maker and put it in the refrigerator then. Or you can wait and let it get more tart for 12 hours or more."  It also gives more specific instructions about the three types of yogurt makers, so you can see which one you own and follow more recommendations based on that.


This(I guess you mean these glasses)  is a glass used to serve Berliner Weisse , in Berlin(where this drink comes from), we  simply call it "Berliner Weisse Glass".


What's the best way to store lots of kale to use for smoothies?

The party line from Still Tasty is to:

Cut out the stems, wash, and blanche for about 2 minutes
Dry
Store in freezer bags with as little air as possible

They indicate you will get about a year of storage from this method.

That being said, the method you propose is well known for herbs, and kale is certainly much heartier than an herb.  It should work very well, given that the application is a smoothie and you don't mind having the kale pureed already.  It should keep the kale usable for a year or so as well.

So the main issue with the traditional method is, are you willing to blanche your kale?  I know not everyone is.

If you use kale for other dishes and have to blend your daily smoothie anyway, you might use the standard method, and store it in daily sized batches, thus giving you the ability to use it for either a smoothie or some other dish.


Yes, you can do this like:

...though I would recommend multiple layers around.

That said, why is it that you "need" to do it this way rather than in layers? The actual baking of an 'extra thick' cake is likely to leave with cake that is over done at the edges and under done in the center.


How to make cauliflower pizza crust without using parmesan cheese?

As far as I can tell from the recipe, the parmesan cheese is included mostly for flavor, plus a little crispiness as suggested in a comment. The mozzarella and egg are what keep the base together.

Omitting the parmesan altogether should work. You can substitute any hard(er) cheese. I would also recommend breadcrumbs if cheese is too expensive, but that will probably not fit in the Keto diet.

As a final note: the recipe calls for 1/4 cup of grated parmesan. Given a quick search for the density of grated parmesan, this comes to about 25g (less than 1 oz.) of cheese. This does not seem like a lot to me, although you might disagree.


Why am I getting runny whipped cream from my iSi canister?

Things to check:

Seal.  If the seal is broken/erroded gas will be able to escape and will therefore not whip your cream - giving you a liquid.

Canister (Charge) - Are you using a fresh charge (ie. NOS canister)?  While it is unlikely, it is possible that you have either a dud box or it has somehow become damaged.

Position - Are you holding it correctly?  I believe it should be completely inverted when using it forcing the gas through the cream as it escapes.  Double check your instructions for your specific whipper.

Cold cream will work better than warm - What is the temperature of the cream you are trying to whip?  Also I assume you are using 100% dairy cream?  I've had mixed results with things like elmlea (a UK low fat "cream" that uses vegetable oil instead of dairy fat).


What are the conditions that raw milk, just milked from a cow, should stand to obainin thick traditional Romanian smântână?

I can't give you the Romanian recipe but I doubt it differs much from Polish.
First, Start with cow milk. It must be genuine unprocessed milk - absolutely not cooked, UHT, preserved, skim, lactose-free or other 'inventions' where the natural bacterial flora has been killed and the milk will rot instead of souring.
Make the standard fresh cream. There were traditional tools for that but a centrifugal separator will do just fine, with far less effort; the technology doesn't 'spoil' this part.
Don't go over the top with fat content. The American creams are ludicrously fatty. 14-18% of fat content is normal, up to 30% is okay but really unnecessary and will make it harder to achieve the right results.
Then put the sweet cream in a clean ceramic jar, cover with a clean cloth that allows air through but will stop insects, and leave in a slightly cool place - temperature of order of 18 Celsius degrees (although 'cooler side' of room temperature is fine). Let it sit overnight and if you started with genuine unprocessed cow milk, it will sour and thicken into the traditional sour cream with a layer of transparent whey on the bottom.


Make espresso in office kitchen- just have a kettle and microwave?

Great espresso requires these things:

Proper Coffee
Proper Grind
Water heated to the proper temperature (boiling is too hot)
A method to push water at a specific pressure, through the grinds.

You can solve #1 and #2 by buying your coffee already ground. I would suggest you start with Illy espresso or find a local reputable roaster. I would stay with Illy until you feel comfortable with the other variables.

You can solve #3 with your current equipment, but you may want a thermometer. You can boil the water, then let it sit for a few minutes and you should be ok.

Regarding #4, that is where you are missing the proper equipment. This is where I would suggest an AeroPress or MyPressi. They have been recommended strongly a number of times.

Aeropress:  http://aerobie.com/products/aeropress.htm

MyPressi: http://mypressi.com

My suggestion is a "starter" suggestion. You are going to find it difficult to make great espresso when you have so many variables to manage yourself. With the above setup, I believe you can make good espresso and that may be good enough. We have an Rancilio espresso maker at our office and about 10% of the people use it properly. The rest of the people do not make a great espresso, but they make "good enough" and they are happy with it.

EDIT:

If you want espresso, as officially defined, the Aeropress above won't get you there. This will get you close to it, with the resources you have, plus a minor purchase. If you like it, then it doesn't matter what it is called.


Yogurt and milk might work, but those ingredients are not in authentic chapati.  When I hear the words "hard" and "rubbery" in reference to pan-fried bread, I'm almost certain that the problem is that they are cooking for too long on too low of heat. Increase the heat on your pan (it should be very hot) and cook the chapati very briefly on each side. This will still give them a nicely browned exterior, without turning them into sheets of rubber.


Does English Breakfast Tea equal Assam Tea?

I believe that 'English Breakfast Tea' is a very broad definition and doesn't refer to an exact blend; each manufacturer has their own version of it. I would say that English Breakfast Tea often includes Assam, but as your Wiki source suggests it also contains other teas. Therefore Assam is a separate tea.


When should I add diced vegetables to a pie, and how long to cook them for?

There are two approaches you could use on this, which are to either make a stew with all the ingredients and then turn it into a pie, or prepare separately and then put together into a pie. Which to choose depends on your personal preference. Using the stew method blends all the flavors together and is less work and cleanup as you don't have to cook the vegetables separately. Cooking separately keeps the flavors of each vegetable more distinct, but is more work and cleanup. Personally I prefer the stew method as I like the blending of flavors.

Either way the challenge as you have recognized is to get the vegetables to the right cooked consistency, and in either case the answer is to subtract the cooking time imparted by the baking from the pre-cooking time. Baking does not cook the vegetables nearly as quickly, over time I have figured that using a 3 to 4x multiplier works ok, if a vegetable takes 5 minutes in the steamer to cook it will take between 15-20 minutes in the oven roughly. So for carrots you would ordinarily cook for 15 minutes you would pre-cook them for 10 minutes and then bake for 15-20 minutes.

Another option is to use a fork to test doneness, I've found that if I can get a fork to just start to sink into a carrot piece then putting it into the oven for 15 minutes will finish it off. Getting the vegetables to this state at the same time is the challenge, but it can be done.

This is my personal experience with cooking vegetables to be done at the same time, from longest to shortest cooking times:

Beans
Hard root vegetables: carrots are in this class
Other roots: potatoes, parsnips, turnips
Squashes
Hard leafy vegetables: winter greens, collards, cabbages
Brassicas (broccoli, cauliflower), string beans
Soft leafy vegetables: spinach, kale
Green peas: these take no time at all, cooking them more than a couple of minutes turns them to mush

There's a lot of variation between these classes, for instance cauliflower takes longer than broccoli, and thick runner beans take twice as long as fine french beans. You need to keep these in mind.

If you are making a pastry topped pie the only thing baking is for is to cook the pastry top. If you cool the filling below a certain point the vegetables will stop cooking, or at least slow down quite a bit. My favorite trick is to wait until the vegetables are just about perfect before dumping a couple of handfuls of frozen peas into my filling, this melts the peas and they cook perfectly in the residual heat while bringing the temperature down quickly. I then fill and bake.


I may not get a vote for this (hell, possibly a downvote), but....

Can't you just buy some bamboo steamer baskets from a chinese grocery and figure a way to stabilize them while they are stacked together? They are available in many sizes, and I am sure this little hack would work just fine.

Also, having checked google, there are very few inexpensive options.

PS I like your name, it's spelled the cool way, just like my wife.


What is this pan called, and what is it used for?

That is a Holzit pie pan, used for making berry pies, where the filling may expand and run over the side of the pie during baking.


Can I still use frozen beef brisket left out at room temperature for 12 hours?

Unfortunately, as sad as it is to see two nice briskets get wasted, I would not feel comfortable using them. In the guidelines from the USDA, thawing on the counter is explicitly discouraged. Additionally, it is likely that in that amount of time the surface of the cuts came up to temperature to allow for otherwise inactive (due to freezing) pathogens to become active again. In the absence of a vacuum pack and having been left at room temperature for that long, it is likely that even in the original paper wrapping the food has become unsafe to eat.


Method for including bacon in an otherwise vegan chili?

You have two different approaches from Catija and eckes, depending on what you favor, but you could also combine both approaches -

Start by chopping up the bacon, and then cooking it in the pot until it's nicely crisped and the fat is rendered.

Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon, to paper towels to soak the remaining fat from the bacon and leave it in it's crisped state.  Leave the drippings/fat behind in the pot, and use that instead of oil to saute the vegetables.  This will allow the bacon flavor to permeate the dish, overall, a bit more.

Then, either just before serving, or on the side to sprinkle over the served dish, add the bacon or allow the eater to add, themselves.


How to save a dish with an onion paste base which tastes like raw onion paste?

Guess my first instinct to heat some oil and fry it off was correct.

Had the base in the fridge and instead of throwing it away thought I'd try it out, and it worked.

Though there was still a hint of raw onion paste, it wasn't as bad as earlier, and could taste the other ingredients too.


How to get heat high enough for stir fry?

I have never tried it but when I googled wok burners (thinking to find a standalone high-output gas hob), I found this article about a wok ring called the "WokMon" on Serious Eats and had to post it here:

A couple months ago I was approached by Glen Lee, an inventor who claimed to have an ingenious new device for cooking in a wok at home. Seemed to me that if it worked the way he promised, it would to revolutionize home wok cooking in the same way that the Baking Steel revolutionized home pizza-making.
I played around with it a lot, measuring, tinkering, reporting a few issues (it's still in development phase and has kinks to work out—luckily Glen has been extremely receptive to feedback), and generally cooking up a storm. I'm happy to report that this thing solves a problem I've been trying to work around for over a decade.
It's called the WokMon, and it's like steroids for your gas burner, helping to concentrate your flames and, more importantly, put them under the center of your wok, where they're supposed to be.

It looks like it does exactly what you need but is way cheaper than buying a specialized heat source and doesn't require more equipment.
Unfortunately, they're not quite in production yet, it seems, though you can pre-order them on their site.
Here's an action photo of the flame it produces off a standard gas stove:


I use regular Whole Milk Ricotta. Spread the Ricotta out on 1/2 of a white terry towel. Fold the other half of the towel over the cheese. Smooth it out and let it sit, inverting the folded towel after 15-20 minutes to dry the other side. This the best method to dry Ricotta cheese.


Can I use my blender for food processing the ingredients in my Gazpacho?

The main difference between a food processor and a blender is its shape and how the food is mixed while it is being "cut up".

In a blender, it relies on the funneling action of liquid to mix the food around. Otherwise only the bottom gets blended while the top stays solid.

Food processors usually have a flat bottom and have a mechanism to turn the food as it cuts it up. This results in evenly chopped food.

If you want the gazpacho to end up completely smooth, then the blender will definitely work in this application as it will be liquid enough to get the funnel action going to mix the food around. Keep it mind it would be a good idea to start blending the vegetables with high water content such as tomato and onion first to create a liquid "base" for the other vegetables.

IF you want coarse chunks for the vegetables, it is slightly trickier but still possible to use a blender. You need to work in smaller "batches" and use the pulse functionality instead of just blending. If the batch is too big, you end up with overblended mush on the bottom and unblended chunks on top.


Can I substitute mascarpone for ricotta?

Although my own instinct would be to try using the mascarpone, there are undoubtedly some recipes that might not work.

Consider whether the moisture content, texture, or flavor of ricotta is essential for what your recipe is trying to achieve. For many dishes, such as lasagna or other baked pasta, mascarpone should be no less delicious than ricotta.

However, if your recipe truly needs the specific texture and more subtle flavor of ricotta, then it might be worth waiting until you have some, and make something else with the mascarpone instead of wasting it.

Part of the fun of cooking is experimenting with the ingredients you have on hand, and imagining in your mind how they might taste together. If you can imagine the taste of mascarpone in the dish you're making, then absolutely, you should go for it — it might turn out to be your own special creation!

If you use the mascarpone, I would love to hear what you made and how it turned out!


AFAIK, meat is not really used for Tempura.

Do vegetables. (I assume you already do that).

If you want to do fried battered meats, I would suggest cutting them as small as possible.

Cut the meat into thin strips.

You could also use cheese, look for grilling cheese like Halloumi.


Can't comment directly due to rep limit, but I'm not sure Ryan Elkins above is correct. I'm fairly certain both allinase and LFS are found throughout the layers, though the "core" might contain a higher concentration. Certainly there's no gas contained in the central bulb.

There's a couple of basic strategies for avoiding eye irritation:

Avoid breaking cell walls: use a sharp knife

The enzymes and amino acids involved in producing the Onion Lachrymatory Factor (seriously!) are normally contained in the cells, and only become a problem when released in volume. Using a sharper knife will avoid mangling cell walls, creating more clean separations between layers, and reducing the amount of enzymes released.

Slow down the reaction: refrigerate/freeze the onion

I would guess the activity of both enzymes involved here peaks somewhere around room temperature, or maybe a little higher. You want to get out of this optimum range: either freeze the onion, or heat it beyond denaturation. The former is probably way more practical, since heating to denaturation will leave a soggy mess instead of an onion. You may also be able to deactivate the allinase by substantially altering the pH, for example by coating your knife in lye (not recommended) or lemon juice.

Avoid the reaction products: cut underwater or ventilate

The OLF and the reaction intermediaries look to be fairly water soluble, so cutting under running water should take care of them with sufficient flow rate.

I'm not sure what the mechanism behind the common candle suggestion is, OLF is a thial oxide and not very flammable. My best guess is that the rising air draws some of the irritant up and away from the area, but in that case a fan should work much better.


My understanding is that what many people call white chili would be considered a green chile stew in a place like New Mexico. It's not red in color because it doesn't have any significant amount of dried red chile in it--it gets whatever heat and chile flavor it has from green chile, which doesn't color the stew significantly.

As to defining chili, I think you could work on a definition forever. Apart from the notion that a chile is the pepper, which is the main ingredient, and chili is the dish, I don't like to define it too carefully (of course, New Mexicans think the dish is chile too, but what they have is different from Texas chili, even when they use red chiles).

I think chili is a stew, though. Most stew isn't chili, but all chili is stew. And I believe that for most people to accept what you're making as chili, it would have to include a significant dose of dried red chile powder.

So if you can accept the validity of white chili at all, and what you're making has almost all green chiles and very little red chile, then I'd say you're making a white chili. Or a green chile stew--which would be my preferential term in this case.


How long to store slow-cooked chicken in liquid in fridge?

Assuming it has been treated appropriately in all other ways (not being left out at in the "danger zone" of 40-140 F / 4-60 C for more than about two hours commulative over the entire life time, raw and cooked)) cooked chicken should last 3-4 days in the refrigerator.

See for example, the example of fried chicken per South Carolina's Department of Health and Environmental Control.  It is the only example of cooked chicken in the list, but should be well representative.  Similarly, Still Tasty advises 3-4 days on chicken broth, which would represent the juice or gravy—they indicate the same for chicken Parmesan.

You may be noticing a trend here: all chicken based dishes have about the same storage lifetime.

The fact that it is stored with the juice or gravy, or that you cooked it in a slow cooker is not really important.


Help converting dry milk + milk in recipe

You don't need to do this conversion. Most pudding mixes don't contain dry milk. And the mixture is in there to provide starch, not anything else.

The first and best way to make a cake is to start with a good existing recipe. Getting a substitution right is not trivial, it requires some theoretical knowledge and a few iterations of making the recipe and comparing it side-by-side. It can taste OK the first time, but a tested recipe will taste great from the first time, without giving you trouble. Moreover, this one has been converted from normal ingredients to substitutions for some reason. Back-converting it is unnecessary.

If you are absolutely decided to go with this recipe and make the substitution, you can use cake flour. Forget the pudding and its extraneous milk and sugar, and calculate the gluten content of your cake if made with cake flour (use roughly 10% for AP flour, 0% for pudding powder and whatever percentage is printed on your cake flour package, typically 6-7%). If replacing all the flour with cake flour does it, that's best. If the ratio is off, calculate how much pure starch to add to AP or cake flour to get the gluten amount right while keeping the total flour amount constant (which is the weight of your flour + the weight of the pudding from the original recipe).

If you think the original pudding made a difference in fat content, just use cream instead of the liquid milk. The more fat and less water you have in a recipe, the more cakelike it becomes, the most common types of cake use no water or dairy at all. Milk makes your cake more quickbread like. And if that's the effect you want, don't bother replacing anything there just because there might or might not have been dry milk in the author's pudding mix.


Seasoning refuses to stick to carbon steel pan. Tried various techniques

Before you go scouring your pan with steel wool.

When you said you followed the instructions, did you follow the manufacturer's instructions, or some other website?

Because although random websites might have good advice on building up the seasoning, they don't know how the pan was treated by the manufacturer, and what needs to be done to remove the protective layer that they put on it.

As you said this is a Mafter, their instructions are on the warranty page:

  Black Steel Frypan Seasoning

  Before the first use – Place the frying pan under hot running water for a few minutes, to remove what remains of the protection layer, with a brush if necessary. Dry the frying pan, then fry in a portion of oil, slices of sprinkled potatoes, and large portion of salt for a few minutes. Discard contents, then briefly reheat frying pan with a little oil, remove from heat and wipe with paper.

  After use - Wipe with paper or if necessary rinse under hot running water. Clean without dish washing liquid. Dry and re-grease lightly.

  Pan and Blue steel Preparation

  Do not use pans or new molds before under going preliminary treatment. Pans and molds must be warmed in a temperature of 230º F to allow a good hot cleaning with a cloth. After they have been cleaned with a cloth, they are put back in the oven, one of two times more, until the cloth has very little soil left. Then the pans or molds are greased with vegetable oil of quality and subjected to a temperature of 390 degrees F for two hours. You have to clean them a second time with a cloth, then grease them. Now they are ready for use. The greasing must be repeated before each use.

  Reminders

  The blue steel molds are sensitive to dampness. Do not stock in a humid environment, such as a cold room. You must clean with a dry cloth. DO NOT use an abrasive sponge, it could damage the upper coat of metal, which would lose its properties. Washing is not recommended, however, if a wash is done, you have to dry and grease the molds or pans immediately according to the process described above.


Haddock and Cod are two quite different fish. However, they can be used interchangeably in many fish recipes. So if you want to substitute one for the other you can easily do so. When cooked, many people can't easily tell them apart. Even large food producers and supermarkets get them mixed up.

  ...Three of the 59 samples purchased from Asda failed to contain the right fish.
  Its cod fishcakes actually contained haddock whilst a haddock pie and a haddock fillet were made using Atlantic cod.

  At Waitrose two out of 28 samples tested were mislabelled.
  One of them, a mini smoked haddock pie offering ‘flaked North Atlantic haddock’, actually contained cheap Pacific cod.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1380164/Mislabelled-fish-products-Asda-Tesco-Sainsburys-Morrisons-Waitrose-Lidl.html#ixzz1UCukDoa2

The main points where they may be treated differently are in long term storage. Haddock is not usually salted where as cod is. Haddock can easily be dried or smoked.


Adding Something Besides Water to Buttermilk Powder

Milk, for the sake of simplicity, adds two things to a recipe: lactose and milk fat. Although in terms of flavor, it may make more subtle contributions to your food, chemically, these are the main things to worry about.

Lactose is the primary sugar present in milk. A cup of milk contains 12 grams of sugar, which is about the same as a tablespoon of white sugar. So using milk instead of water in your pancake recipe increases the sugar content significantly. Your pancakes will taste sweeter and brown faster; this could be an improvement or a detriment depending on your taste.

Milk fat, though absent in skim milk, contributes about 8 grams of fat per cup in whole milk. Since a tablespoon of butter contains 12 grams, this is significant increase in the total fat of your recipe. This could yield a richer taste, but too much fat and your pancakes might end up greasy.

So overall: milk won't add anything to your pancakes that they don't already have. But, increased sugar and fat could make them significantly sweeter and richer. Just watch out, and turn down the heat if they brown too quickly.

Carbonated water is simply carbon dioxide suspended in water. It is occasionally used in batters for aeration, especially in deep frying. But I think in pancakes the effect will be negligible due to all the activity from the baking powder. Further, carbonated water is slightly acidic, so it could throw off the pH balance of your batter.

If you really want fluffy pancakes, then separate the eggs, and whip the whites to soft peaks. You can incorporate a ton of air into an egg white, and if you gently stir it into the batter, the batter should end up quite fluffy.

Buttermilk, the fresh variety, is quite a thick product. Though buttermilk powder has all the flavor and acidity of the fresh stuff, it simply lacks the thick texture. You should try to buy a pint some time and see if it improves your pancakes.


Assuming that you are making a modern yolkless posset like this one: https://www.cooksillustrated.com/articles/173-introducing-lemon-posset

This kind of recipe is very dependent on the ingredients ratio and the acidity. You have to pick a recipe which has sufficient fat (and you cannot substitute anything - use real dairy cream, not any kind of nut milk) and sufficient sugar to withstand the curdling. Also, you cannot have too much acidity - so pick a ripe lemon, and be sure to measure properly. If you have either not enough buffers (fat and sugar) or happen to have an extraordinarily sour lemon, you will get curdling.

The recipe I linked also suggests partly evaporating the cream, which will be further help against curdling, but it should work without it too.

It is impossible to change anything about the curdled dessert. You can either choose to enjoy it as it is (try thinking of it as a dessert on a tvorog basis) or toss it. You can also try dressing it up (add fruit or marmalade) or incorporating it somewhere (e.g. add rum raisins and use as strudel filling) but you will not get rid of the texture, so if you hate it, be aware you might waste more ingredients and still not like the result enough to eat it.


Is there anything wrong with soft shrimp?

If the shell is thinner that could indicate that the shrimp is younger, which would also explain the softer meat.


Simple: it has no water.

Chocolate is a suspension of cocoa solids and sugar in cocoa butter. It is made from fat and carbohydrates only. Bacteria, as everything else, need water to live. They can't survive in something hygroscopic (like jam or honey) or something with no water at all (flour, chocolate, pure fat). Similar for molds. So, independent of temperature, chocolate won't go bad in the sense that it will never grow colonies of bacteria.

As Hobodave mentioned, it can "grow bad" in another sense. If held at high temperatures (somewhat above 30°C), the chocolate butter will separate from the mix and form a dull yellow-grayish crust on the chocolate surface. Also, if you leave it in contact with oxygen for long enough (many months), the cocoa fat will go rancid. In both cases, it is perfectly safe to eat the chocolate without risking food poisoning. However, the taste is much worse than in normal chocolate.


We are being bombarded with the message to eat less 'processed food' so asking what that might mean and which foods it includes is relevant.

Most of us will agree on the definition found here:
www.getting-started-with-healthy-eating.com/processed-food
Processed food refers to the products of food manufacturers; these products are literally manufactured in industrial processes.

Industrial is the key word. I can grind flour at home and bake bread but not with a mixer of 500rpm and 100 additives.

Any site with a more inclusive, favorable definition of 'processed food' is probably an industry representative

My opinion puts tofu at the same processing level as home curd cheese.


Cooking lemon juice longer won't make it "zestier."  Like most foods added in small quantities as flavor enhancers, lemon juice has a lot of aromatics and flavor components that could boil off, break down, or get absorbed by your stew/soup with longer cooking.

There's a reason why a fresh lemon or lime slice is often served beside a lot of foods (and drinks) -- you'll get a stronger lemon flavor when it is added fresh at the end of cooking.  A splash of lemon juice added earlier will just give a generic acidity to a dish; you might as well use vinegar or any other (cheaper) acid.

The only reason to add it earlier is in a dish where you use a lot and want the lemon flavor to penetrate the dish fully.  But in that case I wouldn't tend to use plain lemon juice but perhaps more of the actual fruit.  Rinds can be bitter, so you could add zest or chopped up peeled lemon pulp, but lemons are sometimes a bit of work to peel and remove seeds.  A better option for this application is preserved lemons (i.e., lemons added to salt and kept for long storage), which can be chopped -- rind and all -- and added to stews earlier in the cooking process.


Can I set a creme brulee with agar agar?

Removing a custard (which is what creme brulee) is from its form or mold does not definitely require agar agar.   Flan, which is famous from a number of cuisines, is an unmolded custard.

While experimentation would be required, it is highly likely that if you use a silicone based flexible form, and make a fairly stiff custard, you will be able to gently and carefully unmold it.  You may wish to lightly grease the form before baking the custard to help facilitate release.  This Chest of Books article recommends two eggs per cup if milk for a custard that requires unmolding.

Many molded custard recipes exist, although a good number of them have gelatin as an additional stabilizing ingredient.  You may wish to google "molded custard recipe" or "Charlotte recipe" for inspiration (Charlottes tend to have a lady finger garnish around the edges).

If you are interested in using agar agar or other modernist hydro-colloids in your recipe development, you may wish to read the excellent primer at Cooking Issues.

Note that they characterize the texture of agar agar gels as somewhat brittle, which may not be ideal for your application.

See also Can I substitute agar agar for gelatin in pudding which is a very similar application.  Michael at Herbivoracious indicates that agar agar may not be suitable due to the texture.  There are some alternate ideas there that may help you get started.


Can you replace whole eggs with only egg whites when baking pumpkin pie?

Pumpkin pie is basically a custard, removing the yolks could change the texture of the pie.  Yolks contribute both proteins and fats to the pie which are important for the structure of the filling as well as its creaminess/smoothness.  In general, two whites can be used to replace one whole egg.  Avoid whipping or over-mixing the filling to prevent making the custard rubbery.Be sure not to overcook the pie, without the yolks there to emulsify the filling and lubricate the protein bundles, you could end up with a dry, curdled mess.


There's just no comparison between in-season, local tomatoes that you get in Italy and the supermarket crap you get anywhere else, which probably accounts for most of the difference.

Your best bet is to look for heirloom tomatoes, in season. Failing that, try New Jersey beefsteak tomatoes, again, in season. Or any of the "vine ripened" tomatoes you see in fancy grocery stores, although every year those get harder and more tasteless. Finally, if desperate, and you have no choice but to use supermarket rock tomatoes, at least get plum tomatoes, which manage to retain a tiny bit of flavor.

Bruschetta is just:

yesterday's bread (ciabatta or a French baguette), thinly sliced, brushed with olive oil, and grilled or toasted
chopped tomatoes
garlic, basil, Italian parsley, and any other tasty herbs you have lying around (Oregano?)
The finest extra virgin olive oil in the house
Salt and pepper to taste


Do I need to worry about marinade dripping in a gas grill?

Yah aluminum foil is considered a bad thing on grills, from what I have heard.

They sell grill grates for such things if you like, me, I just turn the flame on the grill down a touch and deal with the occasional flame-ups. They actually do no harm. And if you have a grill brush to apply the marinade while cooking with a l o n g handle (what I use) you can keep your hands farther away from the (potential) flame.

Anyway a little bit of char from the flame is a good thing and adds flavor to the meat!


What type of cookie to use, when an Australian recipe calls for "crushed biscuits"?

As an Australian we seem to use Arnott's Milk Arrowroot or Arnott's Milk Coffee biscuits in a lot of recipes.

Milk Arrowroot


What is the name of this dish involving fruit & sugar - blended and baked thin and flat?

Use a dehydrator designed for fruit leather (it will have non-stick trays with very small perforations, so water can escape, but fruit pulp stays in place

Adjust sugar level to adjust chewyness


How do i cook pizza dough before adding toppings?

So we have two different things here: first, can you precook your pizza crust, and two, why is your pizza crust coming out "underdone" when you cook it with toppings.

Of course you can precook pizza dough.  Just roll it out, and put it in the oven for somewhat less time than you would for a finished pizza.  For example, if cooking a pizza with toppings normally takes 12 minutes, parbake the crust for around 5 minutes.

The second question, though is why is this a problem for your pizza dough in the first place?  I'm going to assume by "underdone" you mean "doughy and wet", because that's the usual problem with poorly-cooked pizza (aside from burnt, which is the other end of the spectrum).  There's a few common reasons why your pizza crust would come out doughy and wet:

Too many toppings: if you have a thick layer of heavy toppings, the heat cannot penetrate to finish cooking the crust.  Use fewer toppings
Toppings are too wet: fresh tomatoes, raw mushrooms, watery tomato sauce, uncooked leafy greens, and other "wet" toppings give off a lot of water when cooking, and can cause your crust to be soggy.  The solution is to pre-cook these toppings before adding them.
Dough is too thick: if you are making a pizza crust with a really thick layer of dough, like over 2cm, then it will take a long time for it to cook through.
Oven isn't hot enough: pizza needs to be cooked in an oven that's at least 225C, and better if it's 300C or higher.  If your oven is at a lower temperature, or if there is no heat coming from the bottom, then the dough may never completely cook.
You're making pizza in the microwave.  I suggest this based on some of your other questions.  Making pizza in the microwave doesn't work, and you cannot make it work.


Is Salmonella from eggs a US-only problem?

The short answer is "No," it's definitely not a US-only problem.  Since the question makes comparisons between the US and Europe, I will focus mainly on those two areas.

Unfortunately, it's hard to estimate illnesses from eggs only, because frequently Salmonella outbreaks from eggs are due to how they are handled in the kitchen and what other foods they may contaminate.

If we just look at Salmonella cases overall, the most recent figures I could find from the EU (2014) list:

88,715 reported (confirmed) cases, 23.4 cases per 100,000 population
9,830 hospitalizations
65 fatalities

The most recent figures I could find for the US (2013) list:

7,307 reported (confirmed) cases, 15.2 per 100,000 population
2,029 hospitalizations
30 fatalities

(Note: these figures appear only based on a sample of the US population, so I'd pay attention to the incidence rate per 100,000 when comparing with the EU numbers.)

The problem, of course, is that in both the EU and the US the number of reported cases is only a small fraction of the total.  A major study from the EU estimated that only 1 in 58 cases of salmonellosis is reported, which would suggest an annual incidence of perhaps 5 million cases.  The CDC report from the US linked above estimates approximately 1.2 million cases every year.

Given that the population of the EU is around 500 million and the US is about 325 million, the incidence of Salmonella poisoning appears to be roughly double in the EU compared to the US, but again these are only estimates.  (Also, it's notable that that last study says the incidence rate in various EU member states likely varies between about 16 per 100,000 and 11,800 per 100,000, which is obviously a huge range.  Some countries are much more safe than others.)

Now, the question is: how many of these cases can be linked to eggs?  Most studies suggest that eggs are the most common carrier of Salmonella leading to illness.  From the above EU report:

  Salmonella was rarely found in table eggs, at levels of 0.3% (single samples) or 1.0% (batch samples).  The most important source of
  food-bourne Salmonella outbreaks was, however, still eggs and egg
  products.

In the US, one study from 2000 estimated somewhere around 180,000 illnesses annually from eggs, but another report estimated that the proportion of foodborne illnesses associated with eggs decreased from 6% in the late 1990s to 2% in 2006-2008.  This was all before the new egg safety rule passed in 2010.  (That link estimates 79,000 Salmonella cases annually associated with eggs before the rule.)

Compare that to the EU, which estimates 5.4 million cases of Salmonella in 2010, about 17% of which were likely attributable to eggs, or 928,000 cases in 2010.  Given the differences in population, that suggests that Salmonella cases caused by eggs were about 7 times more prevalent in the EU compared to the US in 2010.  That's the most recent year I could find decent figures for eggs alone to make a comparison.  (Note that incidence various significantly across the EU member states. Those countries that have stricter policies, like the UK's vaccination policies, have much lower numbers.)

Estimates of the fraction of eggs in the US contaminated with Salmonella have often suggested a number around 1 in 20,000 (or 0.005%), based on a study from 2000.  But that was before the new egg safety rule was introduced, and the numbers are likely somewhat lower now (given more frequent monitoring of infected flocks and their removal from production).

With all of that said, I sense in the question and the links provided a skepticism about US egg policy in general.  Just to clarify a few points related to those sources:

Chickens are much more likely to be vaccinated in the EU compared to the US, but the percentage of infected chickens still varies significantly from country to country in the EU.
Improper egg washing is a problem, but guidelines for appropriate temperatures, etc. have become much more strict in the US over the years.
Egg washing is most definitely NOT just done for appearance.  The US successfully lowered its Salmonella rates significantly earlier than many European countries through egg washing and refrigeration.  Similar gains in safety have only recently been attained in Europe mostly through vaccination instead.  The vast majority of Salmonella cases from unwashed eggs come from shell contamination.  Without washing eggs, the only way to ensure safety is to make sure the exterior isn't contaminated in the first place (which means ensuring chickens aren't infected in the first place, e.g., through vaccination).
The last report I linked from the European Food Safety Authority states in its abstract: "An effective way to minimize any increase in risk during extended storage is to keep the eggs refrigerated both at retail and the household."  The practice of not refrigerating eggs in the EU is likely a major contributor to the higher incidence of Salmonella cases mentioned above.  In the US, refrigeration is required partly because of the washing process as well, which does increase shell porosity somewhat.


What is the benefit of a pasta pot with an inset?

I find these gadgets inconvenient, so, I would say no real advantage.  I cook pasta in a large stock pot, and remove with a spider to the pan with the condiments. I can even cook several batches in a row this way. I don't really find inserts helpful, and don't need the extra "stuff" in my cabinets. Your point about extra expense, space, and clean up is accurate. I will also add that the insert takes up significant volume in the pot, so you actually lose usable space.  They are just not necessary.  Spend your money on a good, solid, multi-purpose stock pot.


Fructose is one of the sugars in corn syrup.  The problem is that 112 C is above the caramelization temperature of fructose, which is 110 C (230 F); this is uniquely low among the various common sugar molecules, most of which begin to caramelize around 160 C (320 F).

The toffee flavor that you are getting is due to the caramelization components.

However, without seeing your exact recipe it is hard to know what to change.  I would suggest using table sugar with its much higher caramelization temperature instead of corn syrup would be the most appropriate solution.

It should dissolve the dairy, so you should not need to make a syrup.

However, sucrose (table sugar) has different crystallization properties than fructose and corn syrup, so after you get the main part of the candy mixture up to temperature and then cooled some, you might wish to add a tablespoon or two of corn syrup to help reduce the likelihood of graininess.

You could also try reducing the temperature to say 108 C, but this may affect the final ratio of water to sugar as less water will have been evaporated off, which would change the crystallization pattern in the confection, and thus is texture.  It could end up quite sticky or even gooey.

It will probably be easier to search for a recipe for this confection that is already tuned to do what you want, as modifying candy recipes is very tricky; you must get the science and technique just right.

Note:  fudge by its very nature is a a solid suspension of very tiny sugar crystals embedded in a dairy/syrup phase.  The cooling and beating in traditional fudge recipes are to control the growth of the sugar crystals, so that they are numerous and very, very tiny (which gives the smooth silky texture) as opposed to larger and fewer (which gives a grainy texture).

As fructose and corn syrup tend to resist crystallization, it is odd to have a fudge like recipe with corn syrup as its main sugar component.


How much salt do I use to ferment 1 quart of cabbage?

According to the batch of sauerkraut I made yesterday, and this recipe 3/4ths of a Tablespoon per quart of grated cabbage is sufficient to ward off infection without making the end result overly salty.
 http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-homemade-sauerkraut-in-a-mason-jar-193124


How do I pick the best fillet mignon at the supermarket?

Marbling
From my experience working in butcher shops, you want to first look for good marbling (unless you are on a low fat diet). To illustrate:

I prefer personally anywhere between No. 5 and No. 8. No. 9 and up I find a bit excessive, though some people like it that way. I have had some below No. 5 and they were still good, though.
Dry-aging
From Wikipedia article:

The process changes beef by two means. Firstly, moisture is evaporated from the muscle. This creates a greater concentration of beef flavor and taste. Secondly, the beef’s natural enzymes break down the connective tissue in the muscle, which leads to more tender beef.

Some higher-end butcher shops will dry-age their own beef (at considerable expense) but if you don't have a shop nearby that does that, you can also dry-age it yourself.
Other things
I would recommend not to marinate fillet mignon and season it only lightly. If you plan on wrapping it in bacon, as many do, if you wrap it a day or even a few hours ahead of time the meat will absorb more of the smokiness of the bacon.


I am surprised at your extreme reaction here. This is a simple cleaning product, so even if you have no further information, the default assumption is that it is not especially toxic. OK, some cleaners are corrosive, but this means you shouldn't be touching them in concentrated form, they do nothing in trace amounts. Also, there is no reason for the sea salt to somehow make it cleaner, or for the baking soda to absorb it, these washes would have been useless if it were highly toxic.

For the specific product you mention, it was very easy to find the safety data sheet. Its main ingredients are ... mineral oil, and related petroleum derived products. So, if taken by bulk, it is practically the same stuff you wanted to apply to your board in the first place. Of course, this is not the complete list of ingredients, and in theory, something dangerous could be present in small amounts - but this being a data sheet, it also gives straight information on toxicity. The worst thing in the symptoms is that it "may" cause nausea and vomiting if swallowed, but not to forcefully try to bring it back if accidentally swallowed - this is similar to what one would expect of mineral oil. And then there are the toxicity numbers: you need 2 g per kg, or 140 g for an average human, to cause acute toxicity symptoms. That is, if you drink less than a teacup of it, you are unlikely to even notice it.

Based on that, I would suggest that you just continue using your board as normal.


Why did my flank steak turn grey when I brined it?

It is highly likely that the acid from the cider vinegar denatured the proteins at the surface of the meat, making them opaque instead of translucent, so the red interior does not show through.

This is akin to when ceviche is "cooked" in citrus juice, turning opaque.

This cannot be reversed, but when you cook the steak and browning reactions take place, you should get a better appearance.

In general, you can prevent this while brining by not including acid or enzymatically active ingredients like uncooked pineapple juice.   Brines in general should only contain water, salt, and sugar; other flavorings are common, but they have little to no effect as they do not penetrate.


using medium chilli powder instead of kashmiri chillis, what ratio should be used?

I've been growing a variety of chilis recently and have experimented with drying several varieties. By best, Mk. I eyeball guess is that the dried flesh occupies between 1/2 and 1/4 the volume of the fully hydrated flesh.

So I'd shoot for approximately 1/3 as much (by volume) dried chili as fresh (assuming that you are comparing to finely chopped fresh chili, because the dried stuff does not retain the shape of the original).

Of course for small thin chilis that you can dry whole (like the little Thai reds) the substitution is one dried chili plus some moisture equals 1 fresh chili.


Storing onions and potatoes in the same cellar

I believe that advice is mainly meant for people storing a large quantity of potatoes and onions (like two 10lbs bags) for long periods of time (like 2-3 months).  I can't imagine it applies to a few potatoes and onions stored in a basket.

I have a pantry which is consistently between 60F and 68F, with a humidity of 60% to 80%.  I have stored potatoes and onions together in a hanging wire basket for up to 4 weeks at a time. While the potatoes will turn green and sprout in that time (I buy organic) the onions are still good (although somewhat stronger after a month).

So my answer is: ignore that advice.


What is the real temperature to caramelize sugar?

a lot of recipes caramelize sugar in a simmering water.

Calling the solution "simmering water" isn't a good characterization.   The boiling point of pure water is 100C.  But the boiling point rises as the concentration of sugar in the solution increases.  Once you're above 75% or so, the boiling point increases significantly.  For 90% sugar (still 10% water remaining), it's up to around 120C.

As the water evaporates, the sugar concentration, the boiling point, and therefore the temperature all increase.  When you reach 160C, there's probably less than 1% water and the decomposition of the sugar (carmelization) rate starts to increase significantly.

There are some charts/tables for different concentrations here, but they only goes up to 90%


How do I get rid of plastic smell in rice / pasta?

If these were not food-safe/toy-safe bins, it is likely softeners/plasticizers from the plastic materials gassing out and migrating into the ingredients.

These can be phtalates or other petrochemical/organic compounds, and if in doubt, they are as unsafe in food as gasoline would be.

I certainly would not want to give anything that has taken on enough of that to smell of it to children, even if it could be prepared in a way that lost the smell.

If you discard it, you might consider doing so in a manner that makes sure nobody mistakes it for excess but safe packaged goods.

A lot of clear plastic bins you can currently buy ARE either explicitly marked as food safe (look for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_safe_symbol, often engraved into the plastic), or made from the same material as common in these that are explicitly labelled: polypropylene, which, if not labelled, could still have some questionable additives, but plasticizers are generally NOT needed to make household items from that material. I still certainly would not use the non-graded stuff to directly hold unpackaged foods.

HDPE can be safe for similar reasons (questionable mold release agents), any PVC or Polycarbonate container that is not labelled as food safe very likely is not.


I've never found cast-iron teacups to be practical to actually use.  Not only do you not want to warm them before pouring the tea in, after you pour it in the cups will be to hot to drink out of.  One has to wait for the tea to cool to lukewarm before it's safe to touch one's lips to the cup.

As far as cleaning them goes, you can use soap and hand-wash, just don't put them in the dishwasher.


Yep, that'll be fine. For other purposes, it might not be your favorite - sometimes it can get a little more of the "slimy" coating that people don't like - but since you're cooking it in gumbo, it's all just going to get taken up into the stew (where it'll provide some thickening, as intended), so no worries.

A little more, if you're curious: okra contains mucilage, which is thick and slimy or gluey. If it's cooked quickly, it doesn't have time to release much. But when it's cooked long and slow, like in gumbo, plenty is released and dissolved in the soup, where it acts as a thickener. Frozen okra sometimes releases the mucilage more readily, presumably because the structure of the plant has been disrupted by the ice crystals formed during freezing. This might make it unappealing when eaten on its own, but if you're making stewed okra or gumbo, where it would all have come out anyway, it doesn't make any difference. (I suspect that good quality frozen okra, which has been flash-frozen, might fare better, but I don't have the experience to say for sure, and it won't make any difference to you!)


If a recipe doesn't specify the type of vinegar, is there a standard type implied?

If a recipe asks for "vinegar", a standard type is implied, namely white vinegar.
There certainly are more vinegars than just the white and the cider one (white wine or balsamic are also often used).

However, cultural differences can play a role. I've found on wikipedia that English people put malt vinegar on their fish 'n' chips. If you would see a recipe for fish 'n' chips that calls for "vinegar", my guess is that malt vinegar is meant. I'm sure there are other cultures which use other vinegars as standard. You can always ask some people in your environment. If they all agree, you can assume that's your standard vinegar.