You need to drop the temperature more for overnight. The 'danger zone' of food is between 5°C (40°F) and 60°C (140°F), you want to limit the time your tri-tip spends at that temperature range as that's where you get bacterial growth. Anything higher than that is safe from a bacteria perspective. So you could roast your tri-tip at 145°F or thereabouts (a little extra for safety) for as long as you want.
My big concern with tri-tip is drying it out, even with the temperature dropped you can't leave it in forever without it turning into a brick. I'd be tempted to wrap it in foil to seal the juices in, then try an 8 hour roast at 145°F. What the restaurant is probably doing is roasting overnight, then refrigerating the meat for the next day's service, this allows the meat to rest and keeps it safe. They then use charcoal to reheat it and give it some char. That's just one theory from previous food service experience.
Another thought is that they could be roasting the entire tri-tip primal cut as a whole piece overnight, then cutting steaks off of it and char-grilling them. Roasting the whole piece would take longer and it wouldn't dry out as quickly. You could do this at home too, provided you could get the whole piece of meat from a butcher.


Here are a couple reasons why (for which I know) oil is used on salads:

Oil caries in fat soluble aromas (often we use aromatic oils like olive oil, pumpkin seed oil, walnut oil, and so on, that are all very aromatic) and balances out other components (like vinegar or lime juice or some strong tasting veggies).
it adheres to the surface of many leaves/vegetables better than water/vinegar (cause it breaks into the waxy leaf cuticle), so the dressing coating gets evenly distributed over the salad, you can use another thicker substance that clings to the leafs (like yoghurt) for this purpose instead.
in thicker vinaigrettes/dressings it serves as a thickener, as by mixing with vinegar it builds an emulsion (like in aioli the oil usually represents the continuous phase of the traditional vinaigrette - water-in-oil emulsion, where many modern vinaigrettes reverse the ratio - oil-in-water emulsion, or use some other fats rather than oil).

And as already noted, it is not necessary for salads, you can use just lime juice (like in some thai salads), boiled dressing (that is thickened with starch), stock reduction, fruit/vegetable purees, yoghurt dressings or something else that does not require oil (e.g. I have made slightly pickled japanese salads that only required some vinegar and brine and the main aromas came from the veggies).
Also, I found this to answer "What's its effect on vegetables?":

McGee, on Food&Cooking says:
Oil seeps through the waxy leaf cuticle and spreads into the leaf interior, where it displaces air and causes the leaf to darken and its structure to collapse.


Is it possible my cream was too cold prior to whipping?

Sometimes whipping cream separates a little bit in the package and forms a solid layer on top of the liquid cream. This is normal and should not effect its whipping properties.

The few times I have had a hard time whipping cream has been on really hot days or when the cream doesnt contain enough fat. The cream has then separated in the same way as you described. Your cream should have about 40% fat.

You should easily be able to tell if the cream has gone off by smelling or tasting it.


There is a lot of variability in how fast milk will go bad.

How long the milk has been opened
Pasteurized vs ultra-pasteurized
Temperature the milk is kept at
Thermal cycling: how long and how often is it kept above 40º
Where in the fridge it is kept. The door will have more thermal cycling than a shelf, higher shelves tend to be warmer than lower ones.

All of these influence how long milk stays good. The big date on the top is used by grocers to determine when it can't be sold. If you look closer there will be text to the effect of, "Use within 7 days after opening". This isn't a guarantee. Leaving the carton out while you cook will allow it to go bad faster, as will keeping it in the door. Also if your fridge is too warm for some reason, things will spoil faster.


How long will vacuum-packed truffle last in the fridge?

Truffles are a low acid food, and they grow underground, so they are at risk to have botulism spores present.

Vacuum packing creates a low oxygen environment, which is what the botulism bacteria requires to grow and produce its toxin.

Unless the truffles have been salted (to 5% by weight), acidified (to a pH of 4.6 or lower), or frozen (at all times after being vacuum packed), they are at risk for the growth of botulism.  Some strains can grow and produce their toxins at refrigerator temperatures (and most refrigerators have a temperature cycle that peaks in the more general growth range).  While the growth is slow, it can occur. The risk is increased if the truffles have not been continuously refrigerated since they were vacuum packed.

For this reason, mushrooms and truffles should never be vacuum packed and stored. You should discard these truffles.

In the future, obtain your truffles from a reputable source (which does not vacuum pack) and use them fresh, or freeze them as botulism is not active at freezer temperatures.

See also:  University of Colorado Extension fact sheet on Botulism


How do you make General Tso's chicken as generally found in the Eastern USA?

Many restaurants actually serve a "light" version of the Tso sauce, and I have a pretty strong feeling that's what you're used to.

To make the light version, you use 3x the corn starch and add 1/2 cup of the base liquid (usually chicken broth).

The hint of sesame almost certainly came from toasted sesame oil, my favourite "secret ingredient" that goes into just about every Asian stir-fry.

To get a more consistent flavour for the sauce, instead of using "minced" garlic, you might want to grate it using a fine rasp, if you have one.  This will definitely help to bring out the flavour of the garlic and subsequently the spiciness of the sauce.

Grated orange zest is another common additive, and although it's traditionally labeled as a different recipe ("General Tso's Chicken with Orange"), some restaurants sneak it into the regular recipe.  If you remember any hint of orange, try adding about 1 tsp of this.

Finally, if we're trying to recreate a recipe from an American Chinese restaurant, it's very likely they used some MSG.  You can leave it out, but we all know how much of a flavour enhancer it is.

I don't actually have an exact recipe kicking around, but adapting these changes to the "traditional" recipe, it should look something like this:

1 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup soy sauce
2-3 tbsp rice wine or sherry (to taste)
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp MSG (optional)
1 1/2 tbsp rice vinegar
3 tbsp tapioca flour or corn starch
6-10 dried red chilies
1 tbsp minced ginger
1 tbsp grated or finely minced garlic

I'm going to skip the ingredients and preparation for the fried chicken itself, since that's pretty straightforward and no different from any of the "normal" Tso recipes.  So let's assume that part has already been done.  Here's how I'd make the sauce and finish it off:

Combine the chicken broth, soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil, sugar, [MSG], and rice vinegar.  Make sure that the sugar is completely dissolved.
Add tapioca to the soy sauce mix and dissolve.
Heat a few tbsp of oil in your wok and start frying up the chilies.  The longer you fry them, the hotter the final dish will be, so adjust the timing to taste.  Many restaurants skimp here, and either don't use enough chilies or don't fry for anywhere near long enough.  You're looking for a deep, dark red, almost black colour for optimum heat.
Add the soy sauce / tapioca mix, garlic and ginger, and stir.
Once thickened, add the chicken and serve with the broccoli.  (You most likely got it steamed, that's how it looks in the picture, although my choice would be to stir-fry it with some red pepper flakes.)

I can't promise you that this will be identical to what you got in the restaurants, as I haven't been to those restaurants, but hopefully this sounds a lot closer to what you had than the garbage you traditionally find in lower-end restaurants and on recipe sites.

Update: After reading some of the results of this experiment, I would add the following (better late than never, right?):

The above ratio of starch to water will result in a very thick, almost paste-like consistency.  That's intentional, but if you want something more "saucy", i.e. to put on rice, then don't triple the starch, especially if you're using tapioca.  2 tbsp should be sufficient.  At the same time, keep in mind that it's always easier to dilute a sauce that's too thick than it is to thicken it in the wok once it's already hot.
If you're finding that it's still not spicy enough (I, too, like my spicy dishes blazing hot), then try including any or all of the following in the sauce:

1 tsp chili oil
1 tsp hot chili sauce (proper chili sauce like sriracha, not tabasco)
2-3 fresh red chilies, cut into rings, with seeds (caution: very hot)


The bubbles in Neapolitan pizza come from air, emitted by live yeast in the pizza dough, expanding when it's headed up.

While bubbles can be created by baking the pizza on a stone, it's not required.  You'll also get bubbles by just rubbing some oil on the grill grates and placing the pizza dough directly on the grill.  The key to getting bubbles is having well-made pizza dough that includes lots of air bubbles and baking it under high heat (500F to 900F).

If you do use a pizza stone on the grill,

check the packaging for the pizza stone to ensure it can handle the heat you plan to subject it to
pre-heat the stone on the grill before putting the pizza dough on it.  this can take a long time.


I forgot to turn my slowcooker on overnight w/ chicken in it, can I eat it still?

Without knowing for sure that the temp didn't stray into the danger zone, I wouldn't eat it. Within 9 hours I think it is very likely that the chicken went from refrigerator temperature to danger temperature.

40 degrees F is the start of the danger zone. See:

https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/get-answers/food-safety-fact-sheets/safe-food-handling/danger-zone-40-f-140-f/ct_index

I doubt the human finger is calibrated finely enough to reliably measure this temp with high enough confidence to avoid the risk of food poisoninng.


Why are standard cast iron maintenance practices compatible with food safety?

Toxic?

Neither the seasoning (which is essentially polymerized fat) nor the rust (which is... rust) is harmful in small quantities.  Of course, I would not eat either by the spoonful.

Spray oil as seasoning fat?

See the many questions on seasoning, but cooking spray is far from ideal as a seasoning fat, as it contains emulsifiers and such, and tends to be a poly-unsaturated fat (that is, liquid at room temperature).  Saturated fats are better.  One of the most common household options is, dare I say it, Crisco.   Or bacon fat.

Why is scrubbing with salt sanitary?

Tradition is that cast iron is not washed with soap and water.  The purists will rail at me for saying this, but an occasional light wash with mild dish soap is not going to irreparably harm your seasoning.  As you cook, it is continually being rebuilt, at least in frying which is what cast iron pans are best for.

Nonetheless, the common method of just cleaning out with salt and then drying leaves a dry surface, which is not hospitable to bacteria or other pathogens.  They cannot grow in a desert.  Even if there are micro-crevices in the pan (there are), they would either be filled with the seasoning layer and irrelevant, or leaving the bacteria in direct contact with that active iron surface, which is also not good for them.  But the main issue is that the pan is dry.

Finally, since the pan is hot when being used (often even preheated in many applications) any tiny amount of bacteria which find a foothold will normally be killed quite early in the cooking process.

The seasoning—even from delicious bacon fat—that forms the protective layer on the pan is also polymerized, which makes it less available as a food source for bacteria, even if they could otherwise grow in the very dry environment of a properly cleaned and dried cast iron pan.


Texture and cutting of avocado and Mango used in sushi

Avocado: Soft, but not too soft.
Mango, a little bit under ripe.

So, it is always to your own taste.

As to how to cut the mango, I would cut in half and make thin sliced (a little bit like cutting fish for sushi).

Video showing how to cut a mango (like a pro) for sushi rolls.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL6J_hy3sHM


It is generally recommended to "blanch" vegetables before freezing them. Blanching is heating the vegetables (by boiling or steaming) for a specific number of minutes. You typically follow blanching immediately with an ice-water bath, to stop the cooking process.

From The National Center for Home Food Preservation:

  Blanching slows or stops the action of
  enzymes which cause loss of flavor,
  color and texture. Blanching cleanses
  the surface of dirt and organisms,
  brightens the color and helps retard
  loss of vitamins. Blanching also wilts
  or softens vegetables and makes them
  easier to pack.

For vegetable-specific instructions on blanching, see this list.


How to thaw soup without noodles going mushy

Pasta will get softer and mushier with every heating and cooling cycle. Try a grain or rice instead.


See this article from Colorado University Safe Food.  The goal is to prevent growth of the botulism pathogen.  Here are their key points:

Wash all soil-contaminated produce before adding it to an oil infusion,
Add an acidifying agent such as lemon juice or vinegar to the recipe at the rate of one tablespoon per cup of oil,
Keep oil infusions refrigerated in order to retard the growth of any microbes,
Discard infusions after one week, or sooner if apparent cloudiness, gas bubbles, or foul odor develop and,
When in doubt, throw it out.

Sorry the source article is not formatted prettily, but I was looking for something more authoritative than about.com or ehow.com.


Sumac is commonly used a tart flavoring element in the eastern Mediterranen region.  Historians believe that it was the common sour element in cooking for that area prior to domestication of lemons.  It is a characteristic seasoning element in Fatoush, a Syrian bread salad.

It's not usually available in the mainstream spice section of most grocery stores.  The best place to locate it is in mid-eastern markets, delis, upscale stores such as Dean & Deluca or online through Penzey's or the Spice House.


How to make a good tasting pepper cream sauce without using premade fabricated stuff

I haven't made peppercorn sauce for many years, but from recollection, how you combine the pepper and the fat is the key.  Many sauces use cream, but it's not completely necessary.  The pepper flavour is staying in the peppercorns, which is why it doesn't come on early.
I suspect you need to cook the pepper in the butter before making the roux.  This will extract the flavour into the sauce better, as piperine (the most important component of the flavour) isn't really soluble in water.
Some recipes use alcohol, which also dissolves piperine, e.g. this one (in French) makes a reduction using cognac and adds the butter later.
White pepper is also quite common; I can't instantly find a recipe but some use ground white pepper in a cream-based sauce, with whole black or green peppercorns.  If you're using ground white pepper, buy it fresh; it doesn't keep its flavour very well.
As for the  saltiness, are you adding as much as the commercial sauce? Commercial sauces often use shocking amounts of salt, but you might not need as much once the pepper flavour is dealt with.


Why do I need over ripe bananas for banana muffins?

They are easier to mash (so that they incorporate more smoothly into the batter), sweeter (more starch has converted to sugar), and more aromatic when overripe.

Still, you can get quite a good muffin or banana bread from fully ripe, but not overripe, bananas.


You want emulsification.

Emulsification is the breaking up a fat and dispersing it into a liquid (or vice versa, dispersing a liquid in a fat). A classic example of an emulsification, also known as an emulsion, is mayonnaise.

There are at least two good ways you can emulsify your brown butter, soy sauce, and lemon juice. One way is called shearing, which is just what it sounds like. You're basically cutting off slices of droplets, making them smaller and smaller. The smaller the microdroplets, the more stable the emulsion. You can accomplish a short-lived but great textured emulsion with just energetic whisking of your liquid and fat ingredients. You can make the micro-droplets even smaller and your emulsion more stable by using a blender or immersion blender.

A second thing you can do to bind your liquid and fat ingredients into a much firmer and more stable emulsion is to add an emulsifier, an egg yolk being a very solid candidate for the job. Energetically whisk in about half of an egg yolk while slowly bringing the cool sauce to just above perfect serving temperature. If you like where the sauce is going, and would like it to be even more like that, temper, then add the other half of the yolk. Mustard is pretty effective too, for a different flavor.


What is the difference between enchilada and marinara sauce?

On face value this question would seem not useful because the two sauces have very little in common.

I think it's worth answering because I've had too many awful pot luck enchiladas where the cook obviously had the same confusion.

Marinara is primarily tomatoes reduced and flavored with onion and Italian herbs like basil and oregano.

Enchilada sauce (which means 'in chili') is primarily pureed, rehydrated, toasted, dried peppers, flavored with a little tomato, onion, and Mexican spices such as cumin.

Enchilada sauces should not taste much like tomato at all. They should taste like chilies.

Marinara is generally sweeter from the sweet herbs where enchilada is spicier, both heat and spices.


How do I ensure that pita forms a nice big, even pocket when baking?

The magic word is "water" - the dough needs sufficient moisture to stay moist while it expands to one big pocket and enough to generate the steam to make that pocket.

Most people when doing doughs make them too dry because they're easier to work with.  As the dough rests, it will pull together more.  Ideally make your doughs for this kind of bread slightly wetter than you think and then check it after its been mixed for 30 minutes or so.  Additionally, as you knead and then in the fermentation stage it will firm up some.  Difference in water content of the dough causes many of the consistencies for bakers.  It will also depend on how much it dries after its been rolled so thin - keep it covered.

Alternatively, if you've put your first one in and found out its too dry, then try spritzing the top with a little water and let it rest there for 5 minutes or so.

I tested batches with spritzing and without, and so long as there's enough water in your dough and the oven is hot enough to make the steam - it doesn't seem to matter. Every one came out perfect.


I have a couple of suggestions, which have helped me.  First, cut your nori a bit larger.  Rather than using a half sheet, go for two-thirds a sheet.  Of course this will produce a smaller portion, for which you will need to devise a creative use (I've used them for hand rolls), but beginning with a larger sheet leaves you more room for error as you are learning to create consistent rolls.  Second, I like to try to create a layer of rice that is one grain of rice thick.  Of course, it doesn't always happen this way, but it allows me to work at keeping the rice layer uniform. Forget the "lemon-sized ball."  Just make a layer of rice, always leaving some exposed nori along the long edges so you can create a seal when you roll. Use a bowl of water to keep your hands moist, and avoid sticking rice. It does take some practice, so keep at it.  Once you are producing consistent results, you can go back to a half sheet.


Three main methods of cleaning dry seed:

Blow on it with a fan to remove chaff, dust and some leaf bits.
Sieve it to remove both the stuff that's too course or too fine.
Run it slowly down an inclined plane, like a breadboard. Seeds tend to bounce, crud doesn't and will stick to the board.


How are you pressing the cheese?  Are you using a cheese press?  I have done some traditional cheese making and it does take a lot of force.  Not quite to the point of creating an atomic reaction though.   For something simple, look for a Dutch press.  It is a lever based press that helps.  A screw press can also work.


What makes egg whites and almonds a good combination

There is nothing special about the combination, you seem to have stumbled over a case of confirmation bias :)

Here I made a table with examples. The table is by no means complete, it contains the first things that came up in my head. As you see, all other combinations of whole eggs or egg yolks work with almonds, other nuts, or no nuts at all. If the combination you noted were somehow special, I wouldn't have been able to find examples for other, not-working categories.
So, combining almonds and meringue is the perfect combination for a macaron, and combining almonds, egg whites and flour is the perfect combination for a financier, but only because that's what makes a macaron a macaron and a financier a financier. You can use any combination out of {egg whites, eggs, egg yolks} and {almonds, other nuts} and each of them tastes good and has been used for something in the kitchen.


Cross-hatch it several times with a sharp knife (every 2-3 cm or 1 inch).  Then you can pry up the chunks more easily.


How do I cook frozen Goya Empanadas in the microwave?

This from their website:

  Directions

  Keep frozen. Cooking: In a skillet or deep fryer at 325 degrees F,
  preheat enough oil to cover the empanadas. Fry for four minutes or
  until golden, turning occasionally. Drain on paper towel. For Best
  Results: Fry from frozen state. We do not recommend cooking product in
  microwave oven.

This suggests to me that there is no good way to cook these in the microwave.

Having said that, there is probably nothing dangerous about cooking them in the microwave, although I generally keep a close eye on anything I've never microwaved before just in case. You may need to experiment cooking from frozen vs. cooking from thawed but there are four of them in a box so knock yourself out.

If getting the surface to brown is a problem you could try using a microwave crisper. Microwave crispers come in a couple of forms: a reusable bag (a bit like a popcorn bag) marketed under the name "Brown and Crisp" and what looks like a non-stick steel pan. If these aren't readily available I don't imagine they will make such a difference to your end result that it will be worth ordering them specially.


Anything will cook in a rice cooker, eventually. You will need to experiment with the size of the meat chunks.  When the meal is done cooking, take them out and see if they are cooked and at the correct temperature. If not, finish cooking them and cut them up smaller next time.

What I would do however is cube the meat, sear it, and then throw it in to the cooker. You will end up with a better texture this way.


What is the best way to reheat a sub-style sandwich?

I would suggest opening the sandwich so the filling is facing up, removing any toppings that you would prefer to remain cold, and sticking it in an oven or toaster oven for a bit. That gets the heat to the center of the sandwich immediately, though you'll want low heat (maybe 250F?) and not to heat it very long or the bread will get too toasted. It won't ever be as good as the day before, but I find that microwave reheating tends to result in poor-quality bread.


The egg wash is very important for the crust of your buns.
Different types of glazes and egg washes produce different results on bread's (or pastry's) crust, due to the combinations of proteins, fats, and sugars they contain. I would guess that one of two things is the problem with a milk glaze.

In your case, the baking temperature is too high for a milk wash. The sugars in the milk caramelize and the crust dries out and becomes hard before the inside of the bun is cooked.
You over baked your buns. An egg wash would darken in color sooner than a milk wash, so if you waited for the same depth of color as you had with the egg wash, you would have waited longer and the crust would have dried out more, becoming harder and crustier.

I think a combination of the two is most likely. A quick google will turn up a variety of articles about the different kinds of egg washes and glazes and their effect on bread, but I would start here and here.
If any further experiments also turn out results that are too crusty (or you decide to stick with a milk glaze), you should note that you can also brush the finished but still warm buns with a fat of some kind, like melted butter, which will soften the crust. This may salvage a crusty batch of buns.


why is there no cavity in the whole chicken I just bought?

They usually stuff the cavity with the giblets/neck so you can eat/make gravy/give to cat whatever. You do have to thaw it out a bit to finagle it out of there but once you pull that out you'll have a stuffing-ready cavity. :) happy roasting!


Is Tassimo's caramel creamer suppose to be chunky?

If it's the one for caramel latte, or similar, then no. It can go wrong without smelling wrong and the date (which is a best before date anyway) is on the outer packaging which you've probably discarded. It's not my sort of drink but I had some for others, which meant it was hanging around too long.

If there were lumps of caramel in there they'd melt as soon as they got in a hot drink.


Not a lot, bacon is basically brined and smoked pork (the process/recipe depends on where you live)

Fat does not actually change in flavour as much as the flesh does when smoked

"Rendered fat" is just the fat that has run off when heating meat. It should be pure fat, with all the impurity left behind, or skimmed off

Depending on where you live, lard is either just pork fat, or a common word for animal fat

In Asian cooking if it specifies pork fat I would use that. Most Schezuan recipes are not smokey flavour based, so it may be noticeable, and appear unusual


I am afraid that gloves make things worse. Even with proper training, people who wear gloves seem to be more complacent that those who do not wear gloves. I have seen people handle dollar bills then turn around and touch my food with the same gloves on. Disgusting, and I refuse the food, and when I tell them why, they say the gloves are to protect me...what the F ever. Then I ask them how that glove protects me
From
The germs on those dollars you just touched?

I find its better to enforce good hand washing habits than it is to allow gloves to be used at all. When you are wearing gloves, you don't even wipe your hand on a towel, without gloves your hands kinda start to tell you they need to be washed if you've been lax.


How long can I reuse this delicious bacon grease for cooking?

Is it safe?  maybe.  Is it recommended?  No.

If you're going to save bacon grease (or other fats), I'd recommend:

straining it
putting it into a different container to minimize the surface area exposed to air
keeping the container in the fridge.

Although, the first one, I admit I don't do -- as I'm not cooking bacon every day, I've generally used up my supply by the time I've got more ... so I fill a glass jar, and let solids settle to the bottom ... then just use the stuff off the top as I need it, until I get so far down the jar that I hit the darker strata, when I then dispose of the whole thing.  (I recycle jars for this, then pitch the whole thing ... you don't want to go washing bacon grease down the drain, it does nasty things to your pipes)

...

If you're going to do what you are, you'll want to make sure that you hold the pan at 250°F (121°C) for at least three minutes, preferably longer, to kill off botulism spores, unless you're fond of that whole paralysis thing.


Does power give a like-for-like comparison between different brands of stand mixer?

No, the power your mixer consumes is rather meaningless, and I would never use it in a buying decision. Maybe it is in principle possible to construct a bad mixer whose main problem is being underpowered, but since mixer wattage has long fallen victim to Goodheart's law, you can safely assume that everything on the market has sufficient wattage, and if a given model performs badly, it is not due to lack of wattage. Remember, high power consumption is no compensation for shoddy engineering.

I won't go deep into what you can use for your buying decision instead, since we have a special question for that (linked in the comments). But to hint at it, there is no number available to the customer which would allow for 1:1 comparisons. In fact, not even the numbers known to the producers would allow for such simple comparisons. So don't chase phantoms looking for a number - any kind of number - that tells you how "good" the mixer is.


How do you stop chickpeas exploding in the microwave?

First rule of the microwave...
Always use a loose-fitting lid.
It reduces the cleaning frequency of the interior from once a day to every 6 months or so ;)

I'm pretty sure that unless you want to prod every single legume with a cocktail stick before putting it in the microwave, then you can only do so much to mitigate this issue. Closed containers will go 'pop', almost without fail if you're nuking it mercilessly.

Mitigation could include :-

Stirring more frequently than usual
Reduce the heating time, or segment it - 30s, 1 minute rest, 30s...
Make sure they are completely covered in sauce - like a can of Heinz Beanz.


How to a prevent spoon from falling into soup?

The obvious solution is to not let the spoon in the pot. While you may just let it rest on the pot, you can also use a spoon rest, as I do.

Spoon rests

I always let one of those on the oven so that I can avoid making a mess of my kitchen when I am finished using my ustensils.


short answer: octopus, salmon, shellfish

long answer:

Traditional forms are aku (an oily tuna) and he'e (octopus)... (aka)"Tako" Poke...

ahi poke is generally made with yellowfin tuna... raw salmon or various shellfish as a main ingredient...


How do I balance the bitterness of raddichio in soup?

Was the radicchio fresh? I'm not a big lettuce fan but I know a lot of greens can be bitter fresh (mustard greens, collards, calaloo) and can benefit from steaming, boiling or cooking first.

Actually this website has a load of tips for reducing the bitterness in greens: http://www.justhungry.com/counteracting-bitterness-greens


Should vacuum sealed food be exposed to air when thawing?

Members of the Genus Salmonella are facultative anaerobes. That means they'll grow in both air and in what you bag sealer calls a vacuum.*
I'd just leave the bag sealed, unless you want to check it for smell before cooking. That could be informative.

*Not putting down your bag sealer. They just don't pull a lot of vacuum. You've probably got half a psi or more in the bag when its done, plus air diffuses into even 5mil freezer bags over time.


It sounds like it could be a Nashi pear. It is something between an apple and a pear and is crunchy and rather dry.


Does dumping the water from boiling ramen noodles reduce the fat content much?

Fat floats, so if you dump the water into a bowl and let it sit for a bit, you can see how much floats to the top. You can then remove the fat in any of the normal ways (this is exactly the process you use to defat a stock or a soup), and measure it.

Of course, I quickly looked up the nutrition information on ramen, and it has ~7g fat, ~3g saturated. An egg is ~6g fat, ~2g saturated. The fish is ~27g fat, ~6g saturated. Check your red curry seasoning as well (varies a lot by brand/type) So it seems like your approach is misguided, but nutrition questions are off-topic here.

edit: From thinking about your comment, you may want to try switching to spaghetti. You can just break it until it fits in the bowl, and it should be cookable in a bowl in the microwave, or even soaking in boiling water. You won't get perfect al dente or anything close, and my Italian ancestors will be after me for even suggesting this, but it will cut down on the fat. You can even get whole-wheat spaghetti.


added more yogurt to curry - can I fix it?

You can't take the yogurt flavor out, what you can try to do is balance the undesirable flavors and smells out. This may or may not be effective but it's worth a try. You can balance the sourness with sweet and/or bitter flavors. You've added some demerara sugar which is a good idea, for bitterness you could add fenugreek if available. There are comparatively few bitter spices in most people's kitchens, but you will likely have instant coffee and unsweetened cocoa powder, and you may have bitters if you make cocktails. I would shy away from these though as the flavors they would add aren't compatible but YMMV.

If you don't have fenugreek (or you have added some bit it still isn't enough) you could try to add more curry spices like cumin, coriander, and mustard and try to overpower the yogurt taste. How I would do this is to put a small amount of oil in a pan and heat, then cook the spices in it for a short time, say one minute. Then add a couple of ladles of your cooking liquid, and simmer it for a 3-4 minutes before adding it to the dish. This will get the flavors out of the powder and help get them into the dish, if you just add powdered spices to liquid you can sometimes get a powdery taste from them, especially when using a slow cooker.

This may end up making your curry way too strong, even if the flavors are in balances, if that happens remove some of the liquid and replace it with weak stock or water.


What are the characteristics required for a liquid be considered milk?

It has to remind people of milk in looks and consistency and not be too strongly flavored of something else.

Really, there is no authority which appoints stuff as "milk". If it looks sufficiently like milk, it is likely that people will call it milk. If it is edible and available in large quantities (unlike the milk of, say, Euphorbia) people will try using it as milk - drinking it pure, adding it to coffee, making crepes with it, etc and thinking of it as just another kind of milk.

If you are unhappy with this answer because it doesn't list an objective decision criterion for dividing stuff into "milk" and "not milk", you need to realize that we are not dealing with mathematical sets here, but with cultural categories. Cultural categories are ill-defined, and membership in one is determined primarily by perceived similarities to the prototypical member of the category, in this case visual similarity to cow's milk.


Crockpot recipe when converting temperature from low to high?

You can probably get away with high heat, but you need to watch the liquid content. Since you're not cooking something that is liquid and can circulate to heat evenly, you risk burning the food or having it dry out.

I can't see any reason this needs to cook for such a long time. Ground beef is finely divided, so cooking for extended times won't benefit it that much. I'd say bring it to a boil either on high in the crock pot or on the stove, then transfer to the crockpot for 2+ hours (as long as you have).


Do not use psyllium husk. It tastes terrible and no amount of sugar will mask the taste.

Try using agar-agar instead, that's what vegans use for vegan marshmallows.

In Asia, they sometimes use konjac for it, but you will have to be very careful eating it because people die from accidental choking.


Milk powder is not supposed to dissolve in fat, so you will never get a perfectly smooth product here.
The closest you can do is to disperse the milk powder well. This quite finicky. I prefer the technique where you carefully blow small amounts of the powder into a mixer running at high speed (this won't work if you have a very stiff mass). It will get rid of the lumps you describe, but there will be a noticeable graininess left. Trying different brands is also helpful, as some are milled finer than others - just feel with your fingers which is the softest.


Sauerkraut/sourkraut - ratio of grams of salt to grams of raw cabbage?

2% (20g per 1000g) would be my default recommendation based on sources local to me, but with care less salt may work if sanitation is extremely good (to minimize introduction of undesirable bacteria which the salt helps to supress.)

On the high end, I can say that 4% seems to slow things down, but work, and 8% seems to be simply too much. The pictured jars are 2%, 4% and 8% salt, using red cabbage, which acts as a pH indicator. The 8% jar (rightmost) has not turned pink (and is growing mold on the surface) while the other two are successfully acidifying (the 2% somewhat faster than the 4%) and mold-free. The lids are put on "fingertip-tight" as in canning, so they form a crude but effective airlock seal (they "burp" themselves as needed, just as in canning - they are not loosened manually to relieve pressure.)

Actually 75% red cabbage and 25% apples for these. And the stuff on top is some ceramic tile as improvised weights. Other than for pictures, they are kept in the dark.


If your bread doesn't sound hollow can it still be done?

Absolutely, bread can be done without sounding hollow. We can make the analogy to a drum--if the drumhead is too loose, it won't sound hollow, and if the drum is full of something, it won't sound hollow. Similarly, if the crust is soft or if the inside of bread is undercooked and doughy, it won't sound hollow.

That said, for many breads--especially those made with enriched doughs--a crisp crust and a stiff interior are not good indicators of "doneness".

For a typical sandwich bread (one made with some milk, egg, sugar, and butter, like I expect your buttermilk bread is), it does often sound hollow when done. However, this is not a perfect (or even very good) test--even if it does not sound hollow, it may still be done.

The best test is to take a slice from the middle of the loaf after it has cooled. If the interior is too soft and doesn't spring back to shape when depressed, just bake a bit more next time--to 200F or 205F. Some more enriched doughs need to be baked to slightly higher temperatures.


There are no such guidelines. The needed quantity will be different dependent on all other ingredients in the sauce (both spices and others) but also on the food habits of the eaters.

The way to get it right is to add incremental small amounts and taste.


It doesn't actually dissolve. It disperses (easily seen as some will eventually settle out). The distinction is important, as dissolving could be solved by time or heat.
A few things may help when mixing with water (or milk):

Make a paste with the powder and a little water, then dilute
(this is what I do for protein shakes) Put a little water in the bottle. Add the powder on top and put the lid on. Shake briefly but vigorously. Add more water to about 1/3 full, shake again. Top up to 2/3 full, shake a final time. If you insist on using a blender, a similar approach might be good. It stops the clumps forming stuck to the sides where they're hard to get free. This is normally with whey derivatives. I've tried it with a plant-based powder but it was too disgusting to drink.
I've never used them (because they wouldn't fit in the bike bottles I use for shakes) but there are mixing balls. They're basically a whisk made of wires and makes the shaking more effective.


How can I check if my flour is self-raising or plain?

Put your flour in water.  It should be slightly fizzy due to the presence of baking powder if it is active self raising flour.  If it is plain it should react like normal flour.


Substituting almond milk for regular milk in coffee without bitterness

I don't have a confident answer as to why it's happening. My wife uses Almond Milk and drinks it with her coffee. She's never noticed any bitterness. My first suggestion would be the coffee itself, rather than the almond milk. The way you make coffee (in a moka pot) will produce different results than at Starbucks or any other coffee shop themselves. That said, if I understand you correctly the local coffee shop you're drinking at isn't Starbucks. Personally I find many of their beans to be bitter... Despite you not being able being able to identify the bitterness in the coffee when drank black, I'd suggest that those beans are your problem. Perhaps the Almond milk is highlighting out some unpleasant flavours in those beans.

Things to try (Starting with what I'd guess as being the most likely to solve this...):

Buy beans from your local coffee shop, preferably the same ones they serve. Ideally this coffee shop can tell you when the beans were roasted, and preferably this date is recent-ish. But, if not, that's fine, Just try a different bean first.
Add a bit of salt. See this related question
Change the way you make coffee (drip, moka, etc...) for a day and see if the harsh tones are still present when you add your Almond Milk
Do you use your moka pot regularly, if you hadn't used it in a while, perhaps there are some harsh flavours that have gone stale? (Kinda stretching here).
Try a different Almond Milk?
The last thing I would do is add sugar... That usually doesn't cover up the bitterness.


Take the salamis out of the bag.

Are they complete sausages or has it been sliced? Whole sausages should not be kept in a plastic bag without desiccants even if it's just a ball of paper towels.

Sliced salamis shouldn't be kept for more than a couple weeks.

If they are whole, don't be fooled that you can just wash the skin, molds grow tendrils into its food, not unlike roots, so don't risk it.


The Danger Zone for food is between 5 C / 40 F and 60 C / 140 F.

Assuming that you cook your food first, you will exceed the recommended 75 C / 165 F initial heat, so keeping it hot above the danger zone even for hours is safe.

Whether it is a good idea to do so depends a lot on your dish...


Reusing marinade JUST used for raw chicken

It's a bad idea to re-use a marinade, especially to marinade a different meat or poultry:

Chicken may contain salmonella, if yours does and you re-use the marinade you'll then contaminate the next thing
By the time you re-use it is old, the older it is the less safe it is to use
It will have lost most of its effectiveness: the flavors and acidity will have acted on the chicken, so the marinade will have lost much of its flavor and ability to tenderize.  Even if the marinade was safe to use again it wouldn't have the kind of kick to give you a good result on the next thing

It's a good thing to want to re-use things where possible and avoid waste. In this case it's not worth the risk, and unlikely to impart any flavor anyway.


How long can we store honey in the home?

From beeraw.com:

  Honey is a highly concentrated sugar solution. It contains more than 70% sugars and less than 20% water. its means that the water in honey contains more sugar than it should naturally hold. The overabundance of sugar makes honey unstable and crystallize. Thus, it is natural for honey to crystallize.

From Iowa State University:

  Over time the honey will darken and flavor will change but it will be safe to eat. [...] As it darkens, it may lose some flavor or become crystals. Resist the urge to use boiling hot water to melt crystals as this can damage the color and flavor of the honey

but still is it safe to use that honey.

Honey jars are stamped with "best before date" that suggests life of 3 years, or even up to 5 years.


Non-spicy substitute for chili peppers when making a Thai curry paste from scratch

Let me take a wild swing -

I think trying to generate the volume required by using jalapeños would be too hot for your friend & you're right that a regular capsicum/bell pepper wouldn't have enough flavour to water ratio. Also 'bell peppers' don't taste like chillies.

How about Hungarian or Banana peppers?

Now, this is quite a variable & may depend on where you live as to which type you can access. Here in North London I can choose from 3 varieties without going more than 50m from my front door - from the the fat 'triangular' ones like giant fresnos with very smooth skin which are very cool, to the skinny ones about 20cm long with a 'lumpy' skin, which would be the type I would aim for.
Though they are generically known as Hungarian, [& of course, could actually be grown anywhere] they are likely to be commonly found in Turkish stores - local availability of course not guaranteed.

They taste like 'chilli' not like 'bell peppers' but they really don't have too much kick to them. They would generate the flavour without too much heat, but not sufficient colour, so you could perhaps trick some extra coriander [cilantro] into your paste to deepen the green.

From comments - though I wouldn't bother for myself, you can keep the heat down still further by not using the seeds or inner 'whiter' membranes.


Why do industrial drinks mark caffeine as a flavoring?

It could be because food ingredients are supposed to be listed in the order of their "amount":

Here's the definition from FDA:

  The ingredient list on a food label is the listing of each ingredient in descending order of predominance.
  FDA Food Labelling Guide

Periodic videos channel on YouTube showed how 6-cups of coffee leads to only 100mg of caffeine. So the amount of caffeine is insignificant by weight when compared to other ingredients (milligrams vs grams). It would likely fall below the reportable requirements if caffeine did not have the effect it does.

For example, according to FDA "Average of 1 or more rodent hairs per 10 grams" is "OK" for ground allspice.

So it would make sense to still list it, but under the other category of aroma/flavour.

In Addition, as noted by @Sneftel in the comments, caffeine does have a very bitter flavour and adding "bitters" is obviously considered flavouring.

Interestingly, and to your point, some pain medications do contain caffeine and it's surely not listed as a flavouring or aroma on those labels.


How to thoroughly bread meat with eggs and flour for frying without the mess

I personally like to use forks when I'm breading, so that I don't have to keep reaching into the containers.  I use a pair of forks in each containers, which I use to move the food around 'til it's coated, and then lift them to drop into the next container (important -- the forks should not go into the next container ... grab from one end, lower in, but release before the forks touch the stuff in the next one).

You can also use chopsticks or tongs, but I prefer the forks as I can use them to scoop up a bit of flour or breadcrumbs to sprinkle on the bare spots of whatever I'm breading.

Other tips:

Prep all of whatever you're going to be breading first (assuming you're cooking alone, and don't have a helper).  Having to wash up because your hand's all chicken-y really slows you down.1
Never go backwards.  Yes, some people like to go back into the flour, but if you're looking to be mess-free, don't do it.
Shake off items before going into the next container ... you want a minimal coating of everything -- flour won't stick to flour, so shake off the loose flour before going into the egg.  Let the egg wash drip for second or two before going into the crumbs, and shake off the loose crumbs before going into the pan.  This will both create a crust that won't separate from the food as easily, but also prevents that growing cluster of crumbs forming in the third container.2

If you're looking to do some breading with the kids, and the kids are too messy, the crumb and flour can be placed into paper bags, and you drop items in, seal up the bag (fold over + binder clips), and then let the kids shake the bag.  You might also be able to use containers with a tight-fitting lid.  It'll slow you down overall, but it's no worse than the constant 'I want to help' pestering.3

1 You'd note that I said "hand" and not "hands."  I keep a strict rule that whenever possible, I only touch raw chicken with my left hand, so that my knife hand never gets slippery (and so I can grab the phone if need be without washing up).

2 Some people also disagree with this step, as in the case of fried chicken, you don't get those extra crunchy bits on the outside.  There is, however, a solution ... take the fork in the egg wash, and let it drip into the crumbs, then use the crumb fork to coat them, and lift them to the top of the container ... then set the item to be breaded on top of them as it comes out of the egg wash.

3 Before you worry about me suggesting that I have kids and I consider them pests, no, I don't, but I frequently cook at a friend's house and they do, so we have to set up the breading station away from the stove so that they can help (at home, the crumbs would be right next to the hot pan).  Although some people put the crusted objects on a tray or wire rack and let the eggwash dry for a few minutes to reduce crust separation.


Is the advantage of wagyu and other fine beef obliterated when formed into minced burger patty?

The main thing that wagyu is supposed to get you is dense marbling. That's especially important for cuts low in fat, like the filet and the sirloin. That is, steaks.

The rest of the cow has to go somewhere. The parts that get ground into burgers on conventional cows might as well go into "Kobe sliders". There will be some differences from conventionally-raised beef, where the ground meat is usually made by combining fatty cuts with lean cuts to achieve a precise fat ratio. I would expect ground wagyu to have more fat than a conventional burger, and to have the fat incorporated somewhat differently, but it will vary from processor to processor.

So I'd say that the advantage isn't obliterated, exactly. I'd just say that a wagyu burger will be a lot more like a regular burger than a wagyu steak compared to an Angus steak. There's nothing wrong with that, at least as long as they're not trying to charge massively superpremium prices for it. (In my experience they come with a modest upcharge.)


Can you interchange oil and butter in emulsified sauces?

What will happen is that you will make Escoffier cry. Nothing more.

In a more serious tone, the naming of sauces is somewhat arbitrary/tradition driven. There are five mother sauces, Hollandaise being the only emulsion among them. All other sauces are derived for them, making Mayonnaise a Hollandaise derivative. There are hundreds of derived sauces, and the difference is always slight. The use of butter instead of oil (or the other way round) would be enough for the result to be considered a completely new sauce, neither mayonnaise nor hollandaise. While it is a common occurence in home kitchens, I don't think there is an official name for these switched versions. Some cooks even use the name Mayonnaise for a pure water-yolk-veg oil emulsion, without the mustard and vinegar (for example Ruhlman in Ratio).

Technically, there is no reason not to do it. The slight difference of water to fat ratio when you are using butter shouldn't matter. A yolk can emulsify lots of fat, and the amount of fat you use per one part water is mostly a matter of taste. So you can go ahead and substitute butter in a mayonnaise recipe. The taste will be different, but you will be as successful as with a normal mayonnaise. Only remember to serve it warm, I would expect it to harden a bit when cooled.


Is it safe to deep fry two turkeys in the same oil for Thanksgiving?

Reusing deep frying oil is fine (up to a point - you can't refry indefinitely), and in fact the flavour often improves with use. You should be absolutely fine frying two turkeys one after the other for Thanksgiving. Have a good one!


How do I accurately take a chicken thigh's temperature?

I assume you cooked your chicken thighs to 165–175°F (74-80°C) (depending on preference). 165°F (74°C) is the recommended temperature for safety (at least by US authorities), 175°F (80°C) is often recommended for texture (in legs and thighs; not for breast).

The best bet is to measure in several spots. You generally want to guess the thickest spot of meat, insert the probe past the center, then slowly withdraw it. How slowly depends on the response time of your probe. You then use the lowest temperature you see, especially if you see anything under the food-safety temperature (165°F or 74°C).

If there are multiple pieces of chicken, you should check several. Especially if they're different sizes.

Probe response times are anywhere from 20 seconds on fairly cheap thermometers, down to 3 seconds on expensive ones (like a Thermopen). 10 seconds is typical. You'll know its finished responding when the numbers stop changing quickly.

You also should rest the chicken, loosely tented, for at least 5 minutes (for just thighs, more like 15 minutes for a full chicken) after taking it off the heat—this lets the heat even out, and also will reduce the amount of juice lost when cutting.


There has been thorough scientific research done on this question.  The main problem with Alton Brown's recommendation is that his room temperature "rest" is not long enough, since the scientific literature recommends 24-72 hours at room temperature, depending on acid concentration.

The most common acids used in mayonnaise recipes are acetic acid (vinegar) and citric acid (lemon juice).  Vinegar is more effective at killing bacteria, but either can be used.  Both acids are less effective at refrigerator temperatures than at room temperature.

For a general review of the literature, as well as specific advice on lemon juice (along with lab results), see this article.  The take-home message, which you can see from the data (Table 1 in the link), is that the only successful sterilization of the mayonnaise that eliminated Salmonella bacteria occurred with at least 24 hours at room temperature with reasonable amounts of lemon juice.

The authors determined that the minimum quantity of lemon juice necessary to achieve this result was 20 milliliters (about 4 tsp) per egg yolk for 72 hours at room temperature, or 35 milliliters (about 7 tsp) per egg yolk for 48 hours.

Room temperature was necessary for sterilization: even after a week, all samples stored at refrigerated temperatures still tested positive for Salmonella, even with a high acid content.  On the other hand, after a week, no samples at room temperature tested positive, even those that contained only 10 milliliters (2 tsp) of lemon juice.

A previous study concluded that vinegar was also effective (and more effective than lemon juice).  Subsequent studies have indicated a dose of at least 20 milliliters (about 4 tsp) of standard white wine vinegar should be effective at 24 hours at room temperature -- though 72 hours was recommended if possible.

Other studies have shown that the addition of garlic and/or mustard will increase the sterilization effect, while salt inhibits it.  The type of oil also matters: as documented here, "olive oil with garlic or basil showed the fastest rate of death, followed by soya, grapeseed, rapeseed, groundnut, sunflower, hazelnut and a blended olive oil."

It must be emphasized that all of these studies, without exception, recommend 24 hours at room temperature MINIMUM for effective killing of bacteria.

Before concluding, I suppose I have to address the mistaken assumption that mayonnaise is unsafe at room temperature in general.  It is well-known among food safety experts that commercially prepared mayonnaise is perfectly safe at room temperature (for example, see the quotations at the end of this helpful brochure).  The acidic environment and previous processing stages are plenty to keep mayonnaise safe -- you refrigerate mayo to keep it fresh longer, not because it is unsafe at room temperature.

In fact, adding sufficient quantities of mayonnaise to meat-based dishes like chicken salad or ham salad can actually slow growth and even kill Salmonella and E. coli on the meat and thus make the dishes safer.  In the linked study, meat salads with mayonnaise held at room temperature for five hours had very little growth of Salmonella, compared to what would be expected without mayonnaise.  Note that refrigeration in such cases is still recommended, since the meat pieces can still spoil at room temp and the acidic sterilizing effect of mayonnaise is somewhat diluted when mixed with other things.  (Mayonnaise--along with any liquid or semisolid food--when handled improperly around contaminated food, can lead to cross-contamination of bacteria in mixtures that dilute its sterilizing effect.  But that's not a property unique to mayonnaise at all.)

In the past, homemade mayonnaise did not have the necessary processing to render it safe, which is the impetus behind the many studies I've cited here.  These studies show what you need to do to make it safe.  After 24-72 hours (depending on factors listed above), the homemade mayonnaise can be safely refrigerated to maintain its quality for longer than storage at room temperature.

[EDIT: One additional corollary to the research above is that homemade mayonnaise is actually the most dangerous when it is fresh.  I've occasionally heard people say, "I make homemade mayo, but I always use it right away, so it's safer."  In reality, as discussed in the linked articles, the acid will stop Salmonella from further growth and eventually cause it to die off in undiluted mayonnaise, even with significantly less acid than the recommended quantities.  Most egg-based food poisoning is caused by contamination from the shell, where Salmonella bacteria is commonly found and will grow once it comes in contact with a liquid medium.  This requires time, so fresh egg dishes are generally safer.  (Note that in the U.S., unlike almost everywhere else in the world, eggs are washed and their exteriors are disinfected, so Salmonella infection from egg shells is much rarer.)  With mayonnaise, though, the growth of small numbers of shell bacteria accidentally introduced into the mixture is inhibited by the acidic conditions.  Instead, the concern is the much smaller number of eggs (estimates usually say about 1 in 20,000) where Salmonella is present in the interior of the egg, and the liquid medium may already contain a high enough population of bacteria to make someone sick.  Those rare types of eggs will make you sick even when eaten fresh, which is the reason some restaurants have warnings about sunny-side eggs or runny omelets.  The average person will only encounter one of these internally infected eggs a few times in his/her lifetime, so the risk is pretty small.  But considering that thousands of people probably make homemade mayonnaise worldwide every day, these rare eggs will still occasionally cause sickness.  While the acidic recommendations above are well-researched, I personally would still use pasteurized eggs in making homemade mayonnaise for children, elderly people, pregnant women, big parties, etc.  On the other hand, if you eat (cooked) runny egg yolks on a regular basis, you shouldn't be concerned about mayonnaise, which actually has a lower risk if it sits for any period of time.]


I have a wonderful recipe that originally uses Red Vermouth as it's main flavour. I daresay it would go very well with a fig vincotto. If you do make it, let me know how it works out in a comment.

My grandmother originally made this with veal escalopes. My mother makes it with chicken breast pieces. Since I'm basically a buddhist monk food-wise, I make it with tofu. Probably wouldn't work for really red meat though.

Anyway, cut the meat/tofu into bite size chunks, and shake them in a bag with flour seasoned with salt and pepper and some ground mace (nutmeg is just as good here).

Put some olive oil and a whole diced white onion in a skillet and start the fire on low. Stir and cook slowly to let the onion get all dark and sweet. Then add some minced garlic, the vincotto and a teaspoon or two of tomato paste.

Now throw in the floured meat/tofu bits and sautee until done.
The whole things takes half an hour, most of which is the onions, which need the time.


When should I put salmon in my rice cooker?

It's hard to say without knowing more. What's the temperature inside the rice cooker during the 15 minute resting phase? How big is the rice cooker? How much salmon are you adding, and what will that do to the temperature inside the cooker?

Ultimately, you want to get the fish to its target temperature, but you don't want to exceed that temperature. If you've ever poached fish, you'll probably know that it's the temperature more than the time that affects the outcome. The trouble you face with the rice cooker is that its temperature while cooking is probably much higher than you want to cook the fish to (salmon is "done" somewhere around 135°F, but steam has a minimum temperature of 212°F). Once you turn the cooker off, its temperature will start to drop and keep dropping until it reaches room temperature. Adding a mass of cold fish is going to speed up that process, so the amount of fish you add will make a difference. A larger rice cooker will have a greater amount of latent heat, so that makes a difference too. And taking the lid off the cooker periodically to check the fish only adds to the degree of difficulty.

I think your best bet is some educated trial and error. For a small amount of salmon (~two servings) in a medium-sized cooker, I'd add the fish a few minutes before the rice is done cooking and then leave the lid on for maybe 10 minutes after the rice has stopped cooking. Check it at that point, and if the salmon is done the rice will probably have rested enough to be tasty. If the salmon isn't quite done and the temp inside the cooker is still above the target temp for the fish, put the lid back on (quickly!) and let it sit for a while longer. If the salmon isn't quite done and the temperature in the cooker is close to or lower than the target temperature for the fish, finish the fish in a medium (say, 300°F) oven for a few minutes.

Remember that you're dealing with a number of variables. Be sure to write down the times and quantity of ingredients each time so that you can refine the recipe, and be aware that changing the quantities may require changing the times too.


According to Canada's Safe internal cooking temperatures article, game birds including pheasant should be cooked to an internal temperature as follows:

Whole 82°C (180°F)
Breasts and roasts    74°C (165°F)
Thighs, wings 74°C (165°F)
Stuffing (cooked alone or in bird)    74°C (165°F)

These temperatures will be decidedly not pink (except possibly around the bones), but will maximize the safety of eating game.


How to use frozen patties in recipes asking for ground beef like chili, meat sauce, and meatballs?

If the patties are just ground beef, then use them the same way you'd use any other ground beef; pull it apart with your hands or break it up with a spoon or spatula in the pot.
It may be that your burgers include other ingredients for flavour, in which case those other ingredients will also be in whatever you make, but they shouldn't significantly affect the cooking.
Some burger patties could include things like egg or breadcrumbs for binding and to bulk up the mixture, but it doesn't sound like that's the case from your description. If that is the case, then they will still work fine for things like meatballs but might make something like chilli have an odd texture.


One of the very English methods for rhubarb cake is to cook the rhubarb in apple juice first.
Since rhubarb is incredibly tart, the cooking and the apple juice help relax it a little.

The same should work for you with the elderberries. Naturally, you can substitute a sugar solution for the apple juice, but you should dissolve the sugar in the water first and then add the berries.


Is it redundant to add umami to tomato-based sauces?

The Wikipedia article you link actually hints at an answer. It points out that there's a synergistic effect when combining different classes of umami-rich foods, leading to a greater flavour enhancement than would be expected simply by adding the effects of the ingredients

  Japanese make dashi with kombu seaweed and dried bonito flakes;... and Italians combine Parmesan cheese on tomato sauce with mushrooms.

So it's certainly traditional. But in your example the tomatoes bring some sweetness along with the umami, while the Worcester sauce (like soy sauce) is salty and so rich in umami it's used in small quantities. The effect of combining them is a more savoury sauce than one that tried to get all its umami from tomatoes. Red pesto uses parmesan to similar effect.


Why and when does a skin form on heated milk and how can I prevent it?

I think I found the exact answer somewhere on the net. From my experience, I know frequent stirring and also adding cold milk when it cools down will prevent it.

Also, I notice this also happens for soy milk and the layer from soy milk is used to create lots of different soy products

http://www.wisegeek.com/why-does-milk-form-a-skin-when-it-is-heated.htm

After you’ve heated a glass of milk or hot chocolate, sometimes the milk forms a skin on top of the liquid. The skin is comprised of solid proteins that combine with the milk’s fat molecules, which begin to evaporate as the milk is heated. These proteins, casein and beta, clump together when the liquid reaches a temperature of around 113 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit (45 to 50 Celsius). As the heating continues, the soft protein layer begins to dry out, which is why the milk forms a skin on the liquid’s surface. This layer of skin forms a hard barrier, causing steam to build up beneath it and increase the liquid’s temperature. When left alone, this often causes the milk to boil over.
Though milk forms a skin when heated in most cases, there are several ways to prevent this skin from forming. If you plan to heat the milk over the stovetop, frequent stirring will break up the protein and fat molecules, so that the membrane will not develop. If you are heating milk in a microwave, you can place a wax paper lid known as a “cartouche” on top of the container, which will slow the evaporation process and maintain the milk’s liquid form.
The milk forms a skin only on heated milk that contains fat. If you are heating skim milk, there is no danger of a skin forming on top. Because skim milk contains no fat, the protein molecules have nothing to bond with, and are unable to coagulate.
When made with full-fat, unpasteurized milk, the milk forms a skin that is thicker than the skin on top of low fat milk. The layer of film that develops after heating whole milk can result in a traditional English delicacy called “clotted cream,” which is spread on scones for afternoon tea. To make your own version of clotted cream at home, you can combine two parts whole milk with one part heavy cream, warming the mixture on low heat until the milk forms a skin. Leave the mixture alone overnight, and in the morning, the milk combination will be covered with a rich, creamy layer that can be spooned onto scones or muffins.


Can I coat a very soft cake with royal icing before I cover with fondant?

I don’t know that I’d suggest it
There are a few variations on royal icing, and many of them set quite hard.  This would be a problem for fondant coating, as you want the buttercream layer to act as a mastic to adhere the fondant to the cake
If the cake is especially soft, you’re not going to be able to use smoothing tools without crushing the cake
You might be able to use royal icing on the top of the cake if you use a ‘flood fill’ technique. I’d actually do it in two layers:  pipe a ring of stiff icing around the edge of the cake, then flood with royal icing and let it firm up. When you’re ready to apply the fondant, flood again and then set you fondant on the cake
By doing this, I hope that the first fondant layer will act to distribute force to a wider area, and the second wet layer acts as the mastic and deforms if you press too hard
To deal with the possibility of this being too sweet, you can use lemon juice in your royal icing to counter some of the sweetness


With any game I automatically think about avoiding overcooking as it is quite lean, however any sausage may have fat added to it to prevent it drying out, so a simple look at your sausage should tell you how much fat it has. If it is really dark with very little white in it then there's little fat and you need to make sure you don't overcook them, if there's a good proportion of fat then cook them as you would normally.

The best reference I have for cooking game is out of an app called BB Meat Master which says:

  The trouble with game is that you don't know where it's been. Modern animal husbandry has eliminated many common foodborne illnesses and makes raised meat very safe but wild meat may have some diseases. For this reason some recommend that game be cooked to a minimum of 160F(71C) which is where all foodborne illnesses are wiped out, however with most game this will make it dry and unpalatable. You as the cook must balance safety and flavor/tenderness. When eating be sure to be on the lookout for metal shot or bullets.

To me there's no point in buying game if you plan to cook it until it's dry, so I aim to cook it to medium at 145F/63C at the most. It's hard to gauge with sausages, so with low-fat game sausages I'd brown them off and get them out pretty quick. As long as they're firm you should be ok.


Seeing your recipe would be helpful here. Older sponge cake recipes rely only on beaten eggs for leavening. Newer recipes use chemical leaveners as well.

Common reasons for sponge cakes not rising (or not staying risen) are:

Not beating the eggs long enough
Even with the addition of chemical leavening, getting enough air into the eggs in advance is important to the characteristic structure of a sponge cake. The eggs should be very pail and fluffy. Some recipes explicitly call for beating the eggs for at least 15 minutes.
Old baking powder
Baking powder can lose its effectiveness after a long time. This is easy enough to test. Just mix some baking powder with warm water and if it bubbles actively it's good.
Old oven
My oven recently started struggling to keep temperature. I had to recalibrate many of my recipes until I fixed it. Some things like sponge cake are very sensitive to this because they rely on the initial blast of heat to produce the steam that blows up the bubbles in the batter before the eggs set.
This is also easy to test with a cheap oven thermometer.
Opening the oven early
If the oven is opened when the cake is just starting to puff up then that high heat will be lost and the steam will escape from the unset eggs and the cake will fall, never to rise again.
I realize this would be a change in your behavior which may be unlikely but it is a common reason for sponge cakes to fail.


How do commercial operations defrost large amounts

As Allison C commented. You move meat to walk in fridge and wait. You always have a few days reserve waiting for you. It's also safer as meat that have been in cooler for 4 days can be used on fifth day. While if you thawn it completly in room temperature (or under water but it was in room temperature while you taken it ou tof the sink) you would need to use it immediatelly.


Yes. The important fat is the one the starch first goes into. The higher temperature reached by fats (as compared to water or milk) helps cook the flour, creating flavors.  The liquid added later dilutes the mixture into a sauce. The liquid's fats are not as crucial for the sauce's thickness as the liquid's proteins.

I think of the cooked butter-flour mixture  as a thickner that can be added to milk, broths, and even a saucy dish.  The roux thickens way better than just a slurry of flour and a cold liquid.

Jack Lang has written a long post on Béchamel and Hollandaise and the science is summarized in chapter 4 of Vaclavik and Christian Essentials of Food Science


Fastest way to peel petai? Parkia speciosa, Bitter Bean, Stinky Bean, Sator

While I don't have a tried answer, I had some speculative thoughts that I hope might be useful.  You may have already looked into these possibilities, or they might not work, which case obviously they won't be helpful... but I thought I might offer them because it seems to me like like they might work.

Have you tried slicing off the long edges of the pod, as close to the beans as you can?  It looks like the pod is attached between the beans, so the pod won't pop open like peas - but if it can be pried or pulled open, it might let you take the whole pod's worth of beans at once.  Even if not, it might make pulling the bean from the pod a lot easier if you don't have to pull it free from the sides.  The downside is that it would be easy to nip ends of the beans, especially if they don't line up neatly in the pod - you might consider cutting sections at a time, rather than the whole pod at once.

This would be much easier if you had a guillotine style cutter, which should let you make straight cuts fairly easily and with minimum effort.  I was thinking something like the one below, although you might want one specialized for kitchen use rather than paper.

Alternatively, if you can cut both the long sides off the pod - then if you slice off each bean, ideally so the bean shows through on three edges minimum, you might be able to remove the beans from the square of the pod by putting them in a rotating drum.  The squares would rub against each other, and over time pry the pod edges apart and let the bean loose, and let the beans rub the inner skin off against each other.  You should separate loose beans and chaff periodically, so that the beans aren't damaged by over-grinding them.  While this should work for most beans per batch, if there are any leftover beans that really won't shake loose, they can be dealt with manually at nearly the same efficiency you already have.

I don't know how long it would take to do a single batch, it might depend on the beans and pods, how closely they're cut, how big and how full the batches are... but it could conceivably do large batches at a time, with minimal supervision - and so be more efficient and easier even if it isn't "fastest".  I pulled the idea from the polishing drums used for tumbling rocks, which use grit to wear down the stones - but when researching I found the process is also similar to threshing and winnowing, as is done for grain (like wheat) to lose the inedible husk from the inner grain - the scale is just somewhat different (and dedicated equipment likely to be too specialized, but you can try).  Actually, you may get the same effect from commercial mixers (or even regular ones, depending on batch size), since the work is done by the friction between the beans.

Your square cut pods should work tumbling by themselves, since they're light, soft (compared to stone), and have plenty of edges to catch on each other.  Your beans be relatively unharmed, because they should be tougher than your pod edges.  I suspect it will work better with larger batches, because the weight will give the rubbing enough force to pull the pod apart and shake the bean out.  Cutting the pod around the bean on all four sides would let the bean be pulled loose much faster, but it would mean cutting the extra pod out from between each bean.  Leaving the extra strip of pod on one side, with the bean showing on three, is probably nearly as good, and takes one cut less per bean, which may add up over large amounts.

Also, you should consider that both methods may produce more damage to the bean (in nipped of edges from straight cuts, and splits are also a possibility when tumbling).  It is also possible that there will be beans that need to be processed manually anyway.  How cost-effective the processes will actually be for your people will depend on a lot of factors.


How to mix cream to increase its fat percentage?

I think it is quite difficult to increase the fat content of the cream with your proposed ingredients.

Philedelphia cream cheese has about 35% fat.
Mascarpone cheese is made from curdled cream. It has a higher fat content than cream due to the removal of whey. There can be about 44g fat in 100g mascarpone. The real fat content might differ. The only thing that I know for sure is that mascarpone has a fat content of 80% in the dry product.
Crème fraîche is just soured cream and has the same fat content as cream - 35% (see also the wiki article in Dutch).
Quark (full fat) in Germany has 52 - 68% fat but I think the regular quark has less than 10%.

Have you seen double cream / crème double (40% - 60% fat) in a grocery store? It's just cream with higher fat content. This could suit to your ice cream.

EDIT: I found an older question here on cooking.SE: Is there any way to make single cream to double cream? and Could I add butter to single cream to make whipped/double cream?

I'm wondering if it's possible to increase the fat content of cream if the cream is drained in a cheesecloth...


I'm not sure what causes it and what food safety issues may be involved but I used to have a walnut tree and got a few from time to time that looked like that. I had a small taste once and they were really bad, not worth keeping. I'd put it down to some sort of rot and  I live in Tasmania with a relatively similar climate.
Looking for a reference on common causes the best I've been able to find is from "Diseases of Temperate Zone Tree Fruit and Nut Crops" by Joseph M. Ogawa and Harley English that has a section on kernel mold of the English Walnut, which I'm guessing is the most common variety in New Zealand. This is from a Google book preview that I can't copy / paste so I'm skipping over some parts probably not relevant using an ellipsis:

Under certain conditions several fungi are able to penetrate the walnut shell and cause cause a moldy condition of the kernel. This disorder varies from year to year depending on environmental factors. The invading fungi commonly coat the kernels (...) and also may form masses of greenish blue or grayish-black spores. (...)
The weakly pathogenic fungi that cause kernal mold belong to genera such as Aspergillus, Penicillium, Alternaria, and Rhizopus. These organisms may invade the nuts as early as midsummer if the hulls (husks) have been damaged by sunburn, drought or husk fly.

The book is available for limited preview / purchase for anyone further interested in the topic, but I think the short answer is they'll taste nasty (regardless of any safety issues) so probably best disposed of and maybe complain to the supplier if you got too many in that state and ask for their comment.


Is there a way to heat a precooked ham in a 425 degree oven?

425° F is so hot that it will surely burn over-do the outside of a ham before the inside will get warm.  However, you can slice the ham then warm it for about 10 minutes.  Slicing it will allow the whole slice to get warm, while not over-cooking the outside.


Can I use diluted lemon juice in place of rice wine vinegar

You are going to get similar results but not the same flavor.  I don't think you need to dilute the lemon juice although I would research the pH level of both, because this is the reason the recipe probably calls for the vinegar.


(Intentionally) Mixed Texture 'Scrambled Eggs'

That's the method of scrambeled eggs I learned when I was a kid. It's extremely simple and needs a certain sloppiness to get the - in this case desired - results. No beating the eggs in a bowl, no super-diligent stirring and no milk or cream added.

Tools:
A pan, a fork or small spatula.

Ingredients:
Eggs, butter, salt, (pepper).

Method:
Heat some butter in the pan on medium heat - probably hotter, than you would for classic scrambeled eggs. Once pan is nice and hot, crack your eggs directly into the pan. Wait a moment until some of the whites have started to set - if you make four or more eggs, this will have happened already by the time you added the last one. Use your fork or spatula to loosen the bits of egg that have started to set at the edge and bottom of the pan and push them to the middle. Be gentle, do not actively "scramble" the eggs or stir too much. Continue, until the eggs are mostly done, then give them a last good stir and serve.
You can also stop stirring a tad earlier, lower the heat and put a lid on the pan to finish cooking, which will give you a more omelette-like appearance as the loose lumps bind together.

That should result in streaks or strands of yolk and whites (like hard-boiled egg) in a pale yellow scrambeled base.

If you've been dilligently making smooth scrambeled eggs in the past, it may feel like "messing up", but it works.


How can I make a sugar free strawberry syrup?

Hmm, you might omit the sugar, reduce the lemon juice (maybe by half or so), and blend the strawberries very thoroughly with the remaining lemon juice, and that way you will get a nice flavorful strawberry sauce.

If, you then strain the sauce very well, and reduce the (basically) strawberry juice to the desired thickness (I'm picturing a honey-like consistency), you will end up with a translucent, thick, and smooth strawberry not-syrup - since syrup is defined by the added sugar, as others mentioned, and assuming the natural sugars in the strawberries don't end up counting enough to make it a "real" syrup.  I don't think it will reach a really syrup-like stage without that straining, since the berry fibers will turn it into a paste instead when the water is too low for a sauce.

This strawberry not-syrup would be much more strongly strawberry flavored, for the same consistency, since the extra sugar needed to make it syrup-thick is substituted with extra strawberry juice, minus water.  You will also get much less syrup out of it, between the volume of the missing sugar, the missing half of the lemon juice, and the loss of the extra water needed to make the final product thick enough.  But, it should act, and store, much like a strawberry syrup would.


Does the size of capers influence their taste?

I hadn't really thought about this until I saw your question. I don't use capers all that often, so I usually end up with the smaller ones as that's what I usually find at the market.
Interestingly enough, most of the sites I looked at said that said that there wasn't any difference and that it was a myth that seemed to perpetuate the idea that the smaller capers had a better taste. And your idea about price could also be a factor.
But then I ran across this from The Splendid Table:

SS: What about sizes? Should we be going for the smaller ones or the bigger ones?
DR: On the Internet, almost everybody says, "Get the smaller ones. They are better." But that is one of those food myths that just won't go away. The only reason that you hear it is because that's what everybody has always said, and nobody has really taken the trouble to really research it.
When I was in Pantelleria I kept asking, "What size do I want?" Everybody I spoke to -- from producers and chefs to local food writers -- all said the big ones are much more flavorful.
They usually come in three sizes: small, medium and large. The downside with the larger ones is these are closer to springing open and becoming flowers. They are not quite as tight in texture, they're not quite as firm, they have a flower inside them waiting to break out. However, they have developed to the most gorgeous flavor.

So, size does make a difference in the taste. As far as what is better, I would say it's a matter of personal preference.


Does adding water back into an over-reduced sauce lose flavour?

What we perceive as "flavor" often comes from a lot of aromatic and volatile components that we smell.  We smell them because they are volatile, which means that they tend to evaporate off food (if they are small molecules) or tend to be carried off of food (for larger molecules).  Aside from the basic  sweet, sour, bitter, salt, and umami notes, the rest of the complexity of flavor comes from smell and volatile flavor molecules.

If the only thing that evaporated when reducing a sauce was "pure water" in the form of steam, you wouldn't be able to smell it.  Yet, when you cook a stock or sauce for a long time, the whole kitchen and house often smells with great aromas.

More aromas in your house means more flavor lost from the sauce.  So, if you do add water back into a sauce, your sauce will often taste somewhat more diluted.  Or, more likely, it will taste "unbalanced," since the smaller flavor molecules tend to escape faster and easier in evaporation.  When we cook down a sauce and concentrate it, we're used to the way the flavors change.  But when you dilute it again, the flavors may not have the same proportion as the original.

All of that said, the magnitude of this effect varies a lot depending on the sauce and types of flavors in it.  If you over-reduce slightly and just add a bit of water back in, it's not likely to make a huge difference.  But if you took a giant pot of flavorful meat stock (which tastes fine as-is), then reduced it down to a demiglace, and then added water back in to try to re-create the original stock, it definitely would taste very different and many flavor notes would be significantly weaker or lost altogether.

As Harold McGee notes in On Food and Cooking (pp. 600-601):

  Slowly simmered until it's reduced to a tenth its original volume,
  stock becomes glace de viande, literally "meat ice" or "meat glass,"
  which cools to a stiff, clear jelly.  Glace has a thick, syrupy,
  sticky consistency thanks to its high gelatin content, about 25%, an
  intensely savory taste thanks to the concentrated amino acids [large,
  non-volatile molecules], and a rounded, mellow, but somewhat flat
  aroma thanks to the long hours during which volatile molecules have
  been boiled off or reacted with each other. ... Intermediate between
  stock and glace is demi-glace or "half-glace" which is stock
  simmered down to 25-40% of its original volume. ... [I]t also has
  the advantage of sparing some of the stock's flavor from being boiled
  off. ... Demi-glace is the base for many classic French brown
  sauces.

Or, listen to James Peterson, author of Sauces: Classical and Contemporary Sauce Making (3rd ed., p. 91):

  Do not overreduce.  Stocks are often reduced to concentrate their
  flavor and to give them an appetizing, light, syrupy texture.
  Although reduction is an almost essential technique for converting
  stocks into sauces, much of the delicacy and flavor of meats is lost
  if reduced too long.  Many of the flavors contained in stock are
  aromatic and evaporate when simmered over a prolonged period, leaving
  a flat taste.

In a later chapter (p. 112), he adds: "Stocks and sauces that have been overly reduced often have a flat, cooked taste that must be offset with more assertive flavors."  As Escoce's answer points out, when you reduce a sauce significantly, it may "overcook" the flavors.  Some of that may be due to browning (Maillard) reactions, but prolonged cooking will also break down some large flavor molecules, again lessening certain flavor notes and altering the balance.  In tomato sauce in particular, you may also break down thickening components (specifically pectin) by overcooking, which will make your sauce more watery.  For vegetable-based sauces, this can often be prevented by boiling the sauce briefly to deactivate enzymes before simmering to reduce.

Because of the flavor changes and loss during reduction, many cuisines around the world have a tradition of adding some "fresh" ingredients near the end of cooking and/or when serving, such as fresh herbs, a spritz of fresh juice, or some chopped fresher vegetables.  The flavors we associate with "fresh" are often the most volatile ones, given off early when a food is first cut or cooked.  Adding them at the end can give a depth of flavor that wouldn't be preserved in a long-cooked reduced sauce.

If you do end up with an overreduced sauce, the flavor is often best salvaged by adding some flavorful new ingredients (as in the Peterson quotation above) or at least adding some more of the "base" back in, such as more stock in a reduced stock or more tomatoes/tomato paste in a tomato sauce rather than plain water.

So, how do you minimize flavor loss when reducing?  It's tough, but it depends on whether more problems are created in flavor loss through evaporation or through chemical changes in the remaining liquid (like flavor molecules breaking down).  In most cases, the evaporation is actually a greater concern when making a sauce, so simmering slowly in a tall pot can help.  The more violent the surface of the liquid is, the more the larger flavor molecules are thrown off and can escape: thus cooking down a sauce at a full boil is usually never good for flavor.  (See above link for more details.)  A taller pot will allow more condensation to occur before the steam leaves the pot, making it more likely that bigger flavor molecules will not have sufficient kinetic energy to escape the pot and/or will be caught in the sort of "rain shower" of condensation and be returned to the liquid.  (This is the same process used in fractional distillation.)  Of course, these also slow down the reduction process, so it's a trade-off in flavor vs. time.


How long does raw ground meat last in the fridge?

The store kept it at 30°F (-1°C) or less, at least in the US. Since your fridge is probably warmer, you probably want to use (or freeze) within two or three days, regardless of the sell-by date.


The easiest way is just like this. What's the best approach to get runny-yolk sunny side up fried eggs? but with broken yolks and more time.

This pan would would be perfect if it had a lid that fits, but this lid will be do the trick. Your pan should be non-stick with sloping sides, 8" is perfect for 2 eggs, but larger is fine too. I set the heat to one click below medium [YMMV*], and give the burner and pan a good 2 minutes to heat up. Add the butter and let it reach the point that it stops sizzling. When the butter stops sizzling, add the eggs. To keep track for this answer, I set my timer at this point. Let them cook uncovered until the bottom is opaque, about 1 minute. Add about 1 tablespoon of water and cover.

So far everything is just like the prior answer for sunny side up eggs.

Let the eggs steam until they start to get a bit of white on top, about 1 more minute. Now poke the yolks and use a spoon to baste the top of the eggs with hot butter, replace the lid. Let them cook until they are as hard as you like them. Mine looked just about done at 3.5 minutes. Had I just let them cook one more minute, covered, they would have been fine and ready to plate.

You don't need to flip. If you do choose to flip, don't do it until they eggs are very close to being done. You can use a spatula if you like, but I much prefer the pan-flip. He demonstrates it here at 3:05. Egg Flip Just be sure that your eggs are easily sliding around before you flip. The guy in the video makes it seem harder than it is. Since your yolks are already broken, it's really super easy if you have a non-stick pan with sloping sides and plenty of butter. So I flipped at 3.5 minutes, then covered and let them go for 30 more seconds.

Pro trick: before you plate the eggs, use a paper towel to wipe any extra butter out of the pan, then just tilt the eggs out of the pan onto the plate, that makes for a tidy presentation. I never touched a spatula to these eggs.

*YMMV Your Mileage May Vary


Yes, it matters. You can destroy the pan.

Don't use a non-stick pan. The coating starts to decompose above 250 Celsius, and will probably fail completely if exposed to the temperatures of open fire.

Also don't use aluminium. Its melting point is under 800 Celsius, while a flame gets into the 1500s. You probably won't have enough energy to warm the body of the pan to that temperature, but I wouldn't risk it - locally melted spots on the pan surface are no fun.

Cast iron will certainly hold up to it, but I would be afraid to damage the seasoning.

What you are left with is stainless steel, if you want a stovetop-suitable pan. It will work perfectly without damage. If you are not constrained by stovetop use, ceramic/earthenware is also a very good choice. Don't pick one with printed decor, you may damage the image. But both enameled and naked ceramic or clay without prints will be OK.


How can I get my defrosted pizza dough to transfer from peel to oven?

Keeping a pizza from sticking is a process; the spot that sticks on the peel probably developed before it was on the peel.  Use plenty of flour on the counter while forming the crust. Make sure to move the crust around frequently, and work fast when assembling the pizza. While stretching the dough and between pizzas, occasionally feel the counter. If flour is sticking to it, scrub it away with your fingers and sprinkle on more flour.
Once the pizza is on the peel, shake it frequently to test it and to keep redistributing the dry flour underneath it. If you see a spot sticking and shaking doesn’t dislodge it, don’t be shy about lifting it up and sprinkling flour underneath: if it sticks a little bit when you shake it, it will stick, and more severely, when you transfer the pizza.


Is there a way to speed up the process of making preserved lemons?

Yes, if you have access to sous vide equipment you can make them in less than a day. Here is the process I followed and it worked perfectly.

http://svkitchen.com/?p=614


Are there negative effects of freezing for bread and cake?

Not that I know of. In fact, freezing is usually beneficial because it keeps the cakes firmer for assembling, layering, and frosting. It also helps crumb coats adhere better.


How do I keep long grain brown rice moist?

According to Alton Brown, talking about why a short-grain rice salad won't get hard when cold:

  But it won't be hard, the way, say,
  refrigerated Chinese take-out
  restaurant rice would be. Why is that?
  Well, long-grain rice, which is
  usually what's inside one of these,
  contains a very, very high percentage
  of amylose. [holds up the model]
  Remember this guy? When this cools,
  the amylose and water come together to
  make a structure that's kind of like,
  well, kind of like a crystal, which is
  why it's hard as a rock. The process
  is called "retrogradation", and it's
  reversed when the rice is reheated.
  Now since medium-grain rices have more
  amylopectin in them, this never
  happens in the first place, which is
  why I use medium, and sometimes
  short-grain rices for all
  refrigerated-bound applications.

If you can't heat up the rice, have you tried making some sort of short-grain variety?


Is it safe to use a grill to cook when chemically treated wood was burned in it?

Timber is treated using CCA (chromated copper arsenate). It is not safe to burn or eat food cooked over this timber. The main risk with this compound is that the smoke and ash will contain arsenic ("As" is the abbreviation for the element), which is a risk for acute and chronic arsenic poisoning as a result of short or long-term exposures respectively.

A quick search of the literature indicates that the release of copper and chromium is negligible in burning of CCA treated wood, however one paper has this to say:

  These results indicate that the open burning of CCA-treated wood can
  lead to significant air emissions of the more toxic trivalent form of
  As in particle sizes that are most respirable.

I only found one paper on the use of CCA in cooking which showed a weak positive correlation between the use of CCA treated wood and urinary output of copper, chromium and arsenic, so the risk is real!

I believe that these compounds will not accumulate in the grill, so I think if you (wearing respirator and PPE) were to clean the ash and soot out of the grill and dispose of it according to local regulations (check with your council/state/country), as well as washing out the interior of the grill, you should be safe. I would still advise that you get some expert advice on this before using the grill again.


How can I reheat leftovers without a microwave?

We are in a similar situation, while the house gets remodelled we didn't want to buy another one.  The microwave we have is the combination microwave and exhaust fan model that's 10 years old, which can't be moved out without a lot of thought.

But we find that it is a rather indispensable modern workhorse for reheating leftovers.  As long as the foods you are reheating have some kind of water/moisture it will reheat in the microwave very well.

This being said, we have gone to using a pot and some bamboo steamers on the stove top to reheat most if not all of our leftovers.  The steamer is pretty quick if you have an induction cooktop, which boils water extremely fast.  We can reheat several things at a time, by adding more steamer baskets.  The bamboo keeps excess water condensation from dripping on your food, so no need to really cover it with anything.  It reconstitutes dried out food more moist and it doesn't overheat it.

But it doesn't work well when you want something crisp and warm. For this we use a convection toaster over, with the door slightly open.  We find that our particular oven gets really hot even with the convection fan running it tends to just burn things.  So having the door slightly open keeps the food from burning but still heats up.

We might also heat up a pizza slice on a cast iron grill or pan with a lid or a sheet of aluminium foil on top to keep the heat in.  Also keeps any splatters inside.

As for your particular foods, roast and potatoes.  I might try cutting it into smaller pieces and start with the steamer and then putting it in the toaster over just to crisp up the skin.  As for the potatoes I guess it would depend on how they are prepared.  But I think the combination of wet heat and dry heat will reheat nearly anything you got.

But I do think that the microwave is a pretty ingenious way to reheat food.


Just use a glass pot, Corningware make some decent ones that can be used on a stove. But any glass pot designed to work on a stove with direct heat/flame exposure should work in this case.

If you are worried about uneven heating or hot spots on a gas range due to less conductive glass, you can use a cast iron or aluminum heat diffuser plate under the glass to even out the heat.


What does buttermilk do to fried shrimp batter?

Yes, the fat in the buttermilk should result in a slightly softer, less brittle, batter. The exact crispiness will depend on frying temperature and duration of course.