To mix, use any bowl that won't be damaged by the salt.  I would stay away from metal or wood, anything else would be fine.

To store,  just use a glass jar. I usually use a half gallon canning jar, but if you're making a lot you can use a gallon jar.

Cover the cabbage with a big flat cabbage leaf.  (Or a grape leaf).  Press down, so the leaf is covered with brine. Next you just need a weight. What I like to use for this is a plastic bag: get a big one(like the kind you put produce in at the grocery store), and fill with some water.  Put that in your jar on top of the cabbage leaf, being careful not to spill any water.


Use Avocado instead of Butter to bake a cake?

There are two things you care about when you are making a cake. First, ratio. Second, sequence.

The ratio is a weight ratio. For example, a muffin batter has 2 parts flour, 2 pars liquid, 1 part egg, and 1 part fat. You can use different types of liquid to make different kinds of muffins. You can make any amount of batter you want, provided you use the same ratio.*

The second point is the sequence of combining the ingredients. Look at pound cake and sponge cake: they are made with the same ingredients, using exactly the same ratio. But you combine the ingredients in a different order, producing two different types of cake layer.

If you decide to change a recipe for avocado baking, you must keep both ratio and sequence in mind. An avocado contains, on average, 15% fat and 74% water by mass. It also has 7% fiber, but as I assume that you'll puree the avocado first, it shoudln't roughen the cake too much, it will be nowhere like whole wheat cake. We can ignore the sugars (1%) and proteins (2%), as the amount is insignificant.

As for the ratio, you can try using avocado, and then removing some fat and liquid from the cake recipe. As fresh avocado has 5 times more water than butter, it isn't possible to substitute all the butter from the original recipe - I don't know any cake recipes with such high water:butter ratios. You should rather replace the liquid, calculate how much butter is being replaced by avocado fat, and then add the remaining butter needed. It will still need fine tuning, because some of the avocado water is already trapped in the fiber, and won't hydrate the cake flour. I'd try out using maybe 140-160 g avocado puree for each 100 g liquid in the recipe. This will result in 115-120 g. avocado water. It will also deliver 20 g fat. So for aforementioned cupcakes, we'll only need 5 g additional fat (they use 25 g fat per 100 g liquid). Of course, layers for sponge cake or sachertorte are out of the question, because they don't use liquid in the first place.

The second problem is the sequence. Some recipes expect you to cream the butter and sugar. These can't be made with avocado, as it is impossible to separate the fat and liquid in this case. Similarly, you can't use it to make a roux for a souffle (OK, that's not technically a cake). Other recipes don't require such careful mixing methods, and they should be fine with avocado puree. You can try practically anything where you are supposed to dump all liquid ingredients together, mix, and add the dry ones at once.

Of course, you want also to consider the taste. Avocado has a somewhat earthy taste, and you'll probably notice it in a baked product. So fine cakes (like chiffon cake) are better off with butter. But most of those are made without liquid anyway. You can try to hide the taste in cakes which have a very strong taste of their own. Chocolate batters will be very good for this, but some flourless cake bases with a significant share of ground nuts should work too. Another option is to use avocado in some more hearty, heavy cakes, where the taste isn't a problem. It should function in sweet cakes, and will probably be perfect in savory cakes (think zucchini & bacon cupcakes). It would be interesting to see what happens to a flaky crust where avocado puree is used instead of water (with butter accordingly reduced). If the texture remains OK, it should give a very nice note to quiches.

If you replace a sour liquid with avocado (e.g. yogurt or buttermilk), don't use baking soda. If the recipe calls for it, use baking powder instead, because baking soda needs acidic ingredients for its leavening action.

* But part of it waits too long for the previous patch to free the oven, the baking powder will bubble away and the muffins won't rise.


First, finely chop the onions.  This makes them smaller, faster-cooking, and less of a textural presence in the dish.  Do it by cutting straight through the poles of the onion, resulting in two halves.  Then chop off the knobs and peel off the outer layer.  Run the knife 8 or 9 times along the vertical (from pole to pole), but don't sever one end completely.  Cut finely across these verticals to make a fine dice.  Run the knife over the pile a few times if your cut isn't small enough.

Second, cook the onions. The purpose of sweating is to draw moisture out, concentrating the flavor and enhancing conversion from starch to sugar. Heating the onions releases their aroma and reduces the chemical bitterness they exhibit when raw.  Heat up some oil in a pan to medium-low heat.  Add the onions.  Add salt.  I wouldn't cover the pan, since the lid will prevent steam from escaping.  Stir/shake to prevent sticking or burning.  The onions will get soft and then translucent. (Eventually, if you kept going they would get limp and browned; this is referred to as caramelized and considered a different thing than sweated, so although it's just further along the same spectrum, you shouldn't go that far for this recipe).

That's how I'd do it and why.  I don't know if it's a textbook answer.


Dark grey residue from newly purchased stainless steel kitchen items?

It could be stainless steel and abrasive residue created from polishing.

  Method for Removal:

  Hand wiping with alkaline cleaners, followed by hot water rinsing.
  May require multiple applications until wipe testing results are satisfactory.

http://www.ispeboston.org/files/july_2010_tech_talk.pdf


What could the dough of this cookie be made of?

This is quite a shot in the dark with the minimal information, but I will give it a try.
My best guess is that you already have all the ingredients you need: butter, sugar and flour. What you are missing is probably the ratio. The dark edge with the crisp texture and the nutty flavor is very likely sugar that has self-caramelized in melting butter (similar to the tuille somebody mentioned in comments). Also, the image shows that the cookie is "flowing" - it was not stamped out from a rolled short crust, for example, it was a ball which melted in the oven. And it melted enough that it became very thin, with the edges flowing out to become thinner than the center.
I would suggest that you don't continue trying random recipes, but find a recipe for a cookie of this kind and follow it. You are most likely to find these recipes as recipes for malleable cookies for making e.g. edible ice cream bowls. I don't have my books here, so I can't post the recipe I have (you can come tonight(CET) into chat, if you want) but you can just search for this type of recipe online. Even if you don't find the perfect match, it will probably be a better starting point than random trying.
If you insist on trying yourself though, or cannot find one of these recipes, I would suggest you modify a German shortbread ratio (3-2-1 flour-butter-sugar). Make sure you are using butter, not a margarine or other substitutes, these have different spreading behavior when melting. And then simply reduce the flour substantially, possibly also increase the sugar, and see where that takes you.


Are dates still good if they sat in a sealed bag in the sun?

If these are dried dates you have no problem. Dried dates are often dried in the sun so having more sun on them isn't likely to be a problem. A bit of condensation isn't an issue, just air them out and put them in a cool, dry place.

If your dates are fresh they would need refrigeration as they aren't dried as much as fully dried dates, and it is harder to advise. Usually I would say throw them away but dates are pretty resilient so I would say to try a small bit of one and see if they still are good.

Your dates are probably dried by the way, most are. If they were fresh it would say on the store's website.


When buying blue potatoes how can you tell what color the flesh will be?

It's almost impossible to tell without studying all the different types of blue/purple potatoes and memorizing slight differences in size and hue. One trick is that the potatoes with the deepest, darkest blue skin typically have purple flesh. And the lighter ones are more likely to have flesh that's yellow or even white.

Sometimes, the potato will have a sign with the exact name of their variety:

Examples:

Royal Blue Potato - Light blue skin, yellow flesh; typically large and oval-shaped
Andirondack Blue Potato - deep blue/purple skin, light purple flesh
All-Blue Potato -
deep blue skin and flesh

(I suggest doing a Google Image search on these varieties to learn the difference)

One interesting fact: the Andirondack Blue Potato is a hybrid developed by Cornell University, which is how it got its purple flesh. I'm not sure if purple-fleshed potatoes exist in nature.


The best way to know if your bird is done is by checking the temperature of the thigh with a probe thermometer. You're looking for about 160 F. If you don't have a probe thermometer, and you're cooking a turkey, this might be the time to invest in one.


using icing with buttercream to write with

I wouldn't suggest using buttercream icing- even if you add meringue powder to it, I don't think it will get as hard as you'll need it to prevent it from being ruined when put inside the bags. I always use royal icing with meringue for my icing (this recipe, specifically) and I think it tastes great.


Is Consumer Reports really correct about 6 parts water to 1 part rice?

I am accustomed to the boil-and-drain method of cooking rice. If you like your rice very soft/mushy, you can even cook rice 3.5:1 and wait until all water has evaporated on moderate-to-low heat (this is how my grandma always does it). The texture is different from the aldente 2:1 rice common in the USA, but I think the preference is a matter of habit.

It is perfectly possible to boil and then drain rice, although 6:1 is an uncommonly high ratio of water to rice. Obviously, Consumer Reports are more concerned with leeching contaminants out of the rice than with culinary aspects such as convenience and taste. Still, the rice cooking method exists, and there is no culinary objection against it except that some people don't like the resulting soft texture.

The boil-and-drain method (actually simmer-and-drain) is often combined with first frying the rice in oil until translucent, as for pilaf, but it is not technically required. You can just simmer in salted water until it has reached the desired consistency (depending on the type of rice you used, it will be somewhere on the spectrum between soft separate grains and a sticky soft mass where you have trouble separating the grains), then remove from the heat and drain. Add your aroma after the draining, as you don't want to throw it out with the water.


Risotto question - what does "translucent rice" look like?

Risotto is a common dish down my parts of the woods, being so close to Italy and all. Making your fist few risottos might seem a tad overwhelming with all the tiny details and tricks that recipes will hit you with, but you'll soon get a hang of it and think nothing of it. One 'seasoned advice' though - to keep it fairly moist and remove from the heat while it's still bubbling on top with its own juices. It's OK to keep it even slightly waterish, as that adds to its creaminess (most of the times I've eaten it in Italy, they actually leave it nearly thick soup like). Then keep it covered but off the stew for ~ 5 minutes, while you chop some fresh herbs of choice and grate Parmigiano cheese.

OK, since this is not a recipe question, let's continue answering your 'perfect translucent' question; I'm not sure which recipe you're referring to. but e.g. this one mentions:

  Stir in the rice and sauté it too until it becomes translucent (this
  will take 7-10 minutes), stirring constantly to keep it from sticking.

It also gives advice what rice to look for and is most recommended for risottos. I tend to agree about the article's choice, but you shouldn't have difficulties finding rice that is marked to be suitable for cooking risottos. These tend to be rounder, but most importantly (and what the article I link to fails to mention) they'll have any excess starch removed from it, to allow for longer cooking without overboiling it.

This excess starch removal also helps with its ability to soak in oils (extra-virgin olive oil is recommended, preferably cold pressed, and some butter if you like creaminess of your risottos or to soften vegetables faster), making it nearly translucent in the process, similar to how normal white paper becomes nearly translucent when soaked in oil. This rice will later become white-ish again as you add water and it starts releasing more starch, gathering on its surface.

That 'perfect translucent rice' in your recipe probably refers to the rice being perfectly (equally?) soaked in oils and butter, rather than trying to suggest it should be perfectly translucent in a way that you could see through it. The latter, I'm afraid, isn't possible with any rice I've seen sold neither here, nor in Italy (or in UK, for the matter). The only way to literally achieve 'perfect translucent rice' that I can think of is by using rice-shaped Chinese pasta (I don't know what it's called, but we nicknamed it in my family 'fake rice', that we sometimes use to trick kids into eating 'rice' dishes that they otherwise wouldn't touch) that is actually pasta made of rice starch instead of wheat flour. This rice-based pasta will be literally invisible to the eye when boiling in pure water. But don't use that for risotto (it tends to overcook fairly quickly), unless you have really picky kids that wouldn't touch it otherwise!

Hope this answers your question, and I've attached a photo that approximately shows how the rice should look like when it's supposed to become 'transparent' and equally soaked in oils and butter.

EDIT: For the better of me, I honestly can't find the name of that 'rice starch pasta shaped like rice', but I presume it has a Chinese name, and since I don't speak Chinese, I won't be able to find it. It is however available in some better stores throughout Europe, and quite similar to Orzo, only that it obviously isn't made out of Semolina (durham wheat flour) but rice starch, making it perfectly translucent while boiling and nearly translucent afterwards, much like thin rice noodles.


Why should entrecôte meat apparently be cut into slices before served?

To directly answer your question - you slice it for presentation.
Entrecôte should be cooked at as high a temperature as you can achieve. This will tend towards charring the outside before the inside is cooked. As you should serve it towards medium rather than rare because of the fat content, you want to avoid over-cooking by doing it too slowly.
You are correct in allowing it to rise to room temperature before cooking. Some people would also salt it 30 - 45 minutes before cooking [others would object to that - your call, experiment]. If it was vac-packed, definitely allow it to come to room temperature between towels to help dry it out.
Once it hits your pan or grill, it should really only need a couple of minutes each side; this should be fast enough that it doesn't swamp your pan before each side is done.
After that, you either leave it to rest for at least 10 minutes, or place in a slow oven, depending on thickness. This is to allow the temperature to equalise & finish cooking the inside.
Because it is heavily charred on the outside, for presentation you slice to present the tender inside as it's served.

Image is waygu, but best I could find royalty-free. - https://www.dreamstime.com/modern-style-barbecue-dry-aged-wagyu-entrecote-beef-steak-lettuce-tomatoes-offered-as-close-up-design-plate-image194816166


Why re-boiling milk doesn't boil over again?

If you heat food high enough, you can cause chemical changes.  Letting it cool back off doesn't necessarily reverse these changes.
Typical changes include:

deactivation of enzymes
denaturing (breaking down) proteins
converting sugars into more complex forms
evaporation of part of the liquid

In general, we call this 'cooking', but there's specifically a term in English for that you're doing to the milk: scalding
I suspect that you've denatured the proteins in the milk, and proteins can create foams (such as what happens when you whip egg whites or the liquid from canned beans), but there might be other processes that have happened as well.
I also know that scalding isn't called for typically in modern cookbooks.  Part of this is because today's milk is homogenized and pasteurized, and so some of the chemical changes that we get from scalding have already happened.  But there are still quite a few people who insist that you need to scald milk for certain types of bread making, or you won't get the proper rise and final texture from the loaves.


What foods to cook in a new cast iron skillet that will help improve the seasoning?

To improve seasoning, any frying or searing will help. Frying chicken, searing steak, etc. Anything that has to do with heating oil. The things that can damage the seasoning are acidic mixes, and in long duration. An example: Simmering tomato sauce.

I would also like to add that actually seasoning the pan, and proper handling and storage will give you much better results in improving your seasoning. One good starting point is Kenji Lopez alt's advice on cast iron pans. There are other very good sources on this too.


We do this regularly with regular dishes and fine china. Neither say "oven safe". My mother has also done it for years. The process is fairly simple:

Put our oven on it's coolest setting (about 175°F or 80°C, I think)
Wait for it to reach temperature
Turn it off
Put dishes in and close the oven. We just stack the dishes. As Joe points out, they'll warm faster if you don't stack them. However, I usually do this when I've got 6-8 dishes, so stack is easier.

Be careful when taking the dishes out. They'll be hot. We've never had a problem with dishes using this method. However, if you don't think your dishes will stand getting hot, use your own judgement as there's a wide variety of quality and materials used in place settings.


Why doesnt curry powder completely dissolve when heating in oil?

As Max correctly points out, curry powder is not soluble in oil.  It's basically just crushed-up seeds, and that kind of bulk plant matter isn't going to dissolve in anything.  The exact reasons why a given substance is or isn't soluble in a given solvent would be a better question for chemistry.se, but you could get a quick primer from this page.

However, the spices that make up curry powder contain chemicals that are soluble in oil.  This is likely what you're seeing in the oil from commercial kebabs.

Three possibilities:

They're heating the oil with spices in it, then filtering out the spices, leaving their soluble components behind in the oil (which would cause it to both change color, and keep some of the flavor of the spices).  This process is called infusion, and infusing oil with spices is common in Indian, Middle Eastern, and African cooking.
The spices are just stuck in/on the food.  This might be the case if the curry powder is incorporated into the meat, rather than mixed into the oil like it sounds like you tried.  This would be basically the same process as above, but the "filter" is just the stuff being fried.
It's a suspension, like Max's answer suggests.  In this case, they would have had to use very finely ground spices, then mixed them thoroughly into the oil.  In this case, I'd expect the oil to be at least a bit cloudy/gritty, as ground spices won't truly dissolve in oil no matter how fine they are.


What happens if I use vegetable oil in a cake?

The major difference between butter and oil is that butter is only 80% oil, with the rest being milk solids and water (source).  This means that using oil you will lose some of the water content that your cake should have, possibly resulting in a dryer cake.  On the plus side, cakes made with oil tend to dry out slower than those made with butter.

The other possible different, but one that is unlikely with a mix I'd think, is that it depends on the method of mixing in your fat.  If the butter is to be whipped or creamed while softened this creates a different texture than one you could get with oil or melted butter.  Whipped butter or especially butter creamed with sugar provides a network of air bubbles that act as a raising agent during cooking, and the result is a pound cake like crumb.  If your recipe calls for melted butter, though, this is not a concern - the result is more like a traditional muffin or quick bread crumb.

Finally, a vegetable oil has a fairly neutral taste.  Usually when a vegetable oil is called for, this is desirable.  Butter on the other hand has a more interesting flavor.  Your cake may be a bit bland without it.


To replace miso, you can use soy sauce, tahini or fish sauce for that umami and savoury flavour.


How to prevent sweet thick glaze/sauce from setting after cooling?

until the syrup coated the back of a spoon

Then you made syrup, and that's why it had the texture of syrup. You should not have cooked it, just warmed until it dissolved, if you wanted a sauce texture.

If the directions in the recipe are for cooking until it gets so thick, then the recipe intends the sticky texture, and you might want to use a different recipe. Or maybe they intended the thinnest possible syrup at say 102 C boiling point, and you misunderstood the vague suggestion of "coat the back of the spoon" and let it climb up to maybe 106 or 108.

In candymaking, the ratio of the sugar to liquid is not important, because you just boil the mixture until enough liquid has evaporated to get to the right stopping point (the one which corresponds to the desired texture after setting). It only has an influence on the time of preparation, not on the final result. If you would prefer a dissolved version (not heated until you get a syrup), then the ratio becomes important.


What's the best way to crack open a Brazil nut without breaking the nut?

From here

Freeze Brazil nuts, or soak them in water for several hours before cracking.

Stand frozen nuts with the point facing up and hit with a hard object, such as a hammer, to crack.

Crack soaked nuts with a nutcracker. Place the nut in the grip of the nutcracker so that the seam of the shell is subjected to the direct force.

Use minimum force necessary to split the shell when squeezing, in order to avoid crushing the nut kernel inside. Rotate the nut while squeezing so the shell cracks slowly.

Extract the kernel from the shell.

Allow the kernels of soaked nuts to dry for a few hours after cracking.

Read more: How to Crack Nuts | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_10768_crack-nuts.html#ixzz16j8GzCOo


I've seasoned and floured more chicken than I need to fry. What's the best way to store it for cooking at a later date?

There is no good way to keep it in the "ready to fry" state. I'd suggest to simply store it in the fridge as you would do with unfloured meat. When you take it out, just flour it again. The thicker flour crust will make it somewhat closer to a schnitzel, but it won't taste bad.

If you already had a very thick flour/egg/flour layering on it, it's probably better to wash it off and dry with a paper towel before storing, then redo the panading procedure for the next fry.


Reducing acidity in Northern Indian Cuisine (chana masala)

Perhaps you could try using a smaller kind of tomato, like cherry tomatoes.
These are usually much sweeter in my experience and in general have a lot more to offer in terms of taste, compared to large tomatoes.
A mixture of both would also work if you don't have enough small tomatos at hand, since the sweetness of the cherry tomatoes will counteract the acidity of the larger ones.
If smaller tomatoes aren't an option, I would also go for high quality canned ones, as other people have suggested.


First, it is the ingredients. For example, shortbread cookies don't have liquid, while other types do have liquid. This makes them quite different. Also, there might be ingredients you didn't pay much attention to (mono- and diglycerides, for example, which might have been present at the end as an E number only), but they still can change the mouthfeel a lot.

The second thing is the ratio of the ingredients. The same ingredients in a different ratio will work to give you a different texture.

The third thing is the process. Depending on the order of combining the ingredients, and the amount of mixing, and whether you chill them (and when, and for how long) you end up with completely different textures out of the same ingredients. It is like starting with carbon and ending up with graphite, graphene or diamonds, depending on how you do it.

The fourth thing is the baking process. You can change the temperature and time to achieve different final results.

I realize this list is very, very general. But listing all possible results which can be achieved at each step would make this a small book. Each of the four steps gives you a large number of parameters to change, which changes the end result too.


What's the purpose of nutmeg in mashed potatoes and white sauce?

I think you've answered your own question. It adds an elusive flavor that most people feel enhances the creamy flavors.


Knife is rusting after using it only twice

A list of methods for removing rust from knives can be found at Knife Depot.  In your case, as the rust appears very light and is recent, simply wiping with a vinegar cloth may be sufficient (possibly also needing a wipe with fine steel wool) and then wipe off any remaining vinegar.

In future, it is imperative that you dry the washed knife immediately and then apply a very thin coating of food safe (e.g., vegetable) oil (or fat) - wipe on then wipe off.  Also, don't leave the knife wet (e.g., while using it) for any length of time - wipe with a dry cloth.


What the heck is on this cast iron, and HOW TO REMOVE?

I used franko's suggestion: oven cleaner. I first sanded it down, and after letting it set, I completely reseasoned it was the answer.


Thawed frozen blueberries inside cake roll?

Yes, the blueberries will bleed, and, what's even more non-4th-ish, they will make purple or lavender stains instead of blue.

If you are serving the roll rather quickly after assembly, consider thickening the pureed blueberries seperately with some corn starch or pudding mix. Then you can make a blue-and-white filling inside the red roll. The blueberries must be boiled and cooled again, obviously, because they would otherways melt your cream cheese icing. Aim for a "spreadable pudding when cool" consistency of the berries, ideally the same consistency as the cream cheese filling.

You can layer both fillings atop each other, but the risk of  them mixing when rolling the log is high. I suggest piping alternating blue and white stripes parallel to the edge where you hold it / future long axis of the log and rolling very, very carefully. This should result in a blue/white pattern when you slice the log (wipe the blade often!).

The longer you store your log, the more colour will leach into the white, but a few hours should be ok. Chill thoroughly.


How to defrost frozen pizza dough quickly?

If you dough is a disc shape:
When I worked as a pizza cook at a popular fast food pizza place, we would put our dough still frozen into what we called a proofer. It was basically a heated cabinet around 130 F. It would defrost and have it's final rise in there. After that we would stretch to make the pizza. You could probably replicate this by putting your dough into a covered pan in the oven without preheating on "low" or "warm". You would also want to put a bowl of boiling water in there to add steam. Just make sure it doesn't burn or get up to temperature. You may want water or oil in there with it so it doesn't dry out.

If you dough is in a ball:
I do this for other frozen foods, but haven't tried it on dough before.  Put it in a sealed plastic bag and leave it in warm water. I like to leave it with a constant stream of warm water flowing over the object so the water stays warm. The heat should defrost it and the plastic should keep it dry.


Are trace amounts of lead in seasoned bakeware safe?

I, and in general we, cannot answer if something is safe.  There are instances where we can say something is clearly unsafe, but when dealing with things like is this piece of metal safe for cooking we are not equipped to give anything but anecdotal answers and partially informed opinions.

The only safety answer that is actually reliable would come from lab testing and that is why we shell out tax dollars and public funding for organizations like UL and USDA in the US and similar organizations in other countries.  They do testing and declare metal products, glass, plastics, etc. to be food grade or not food grade according to their composition and reactivity to normal food products.  They are not always correct, but their declarations are made from testing results, not guesses and partially informed opinions, mine or anyone else's.

Also an opinion, but one that I think is really the only prudent and reasonable one to make is get a product that is rated food grade, not a custom made item you or others think is safe.  The amount of toxins in the metal may well be low, well within standards, but that does not say it is not in a reactive form which will enter you food on first contact with a slightly acid item, and lead may even be one of your least concerns.  A piece of steal which was not manufactured under food grade conditions could have many other toxins that are not permitted in food grade manufacturing, permitted because they are in low amounts that are safe for the intended use but become readily transferred to food.


What is the best method/product for cleaning pasta's starch residue from colander and cooking pot?

Soaking in water works for me. Put the colander in the pot, fill it with water - preferably before it dries out in the first place - and then leave it alone until you are ready to do the dishes, whether that's after dinner or (gasp!) in the morning. Either way the starch will slip off easily.


Re-canning Ghee that was not strained well

There are no known methods for canning dairy products (including the use of pressure canning). So re-canning is unsafe, and so is the original canning.


If you want a similar texture and flavor, I recommend trying other similar root vegetables.

I use turnips and parsnips in similar applications. They're both dense, white and have a slight sweetness to them and they should hold up relatively well to long cooking times.

You might also enjoy yucca which can have a cooked texture similar to a cross between potato and banana. I've not tried them in this sort of application specifically but I think they should work.


I'd recommend freezing them unbaked. The crumb is a lot more delicate once they're baked and more susceptible to moisture migration, leading to them being soggy or stale (or both! at the same time!) when thawed. Scones, being relatively low moisture and not containing yeast, actually freeze quite well and can usually go straight from the freezer to the oven.

I've worked in several bakeries where we made giant batches of one flavor of scone and froze dough all portioned out so that we could always have several flavors of freshly baked.


How to incorporate quick soaked beans into a simple vegan chilli recipe

I would soak the beans for several hours, or overnight; discard the soaking water. Tinned beans have been cooked, so place the soaked beans in your usual cooking vessel and add fresh water to about an inch over the beans. You could add in your tomato paste, spices, and cocoa powder.

While it simmers for about 20 minutes or so, I would separately saute your onion, garlic, and mince before adding that mixture to the pot, along with all your other veg.  Simmer for an additional 10-15 minutes. You can always test a few beans, to make sure that they're becoming tender.

You might try the white kidney beans first; they're very commonly-found in many chili recipes, but any of your bean varieties would work. Some may need shorter soaking and cooking times; the package directions should guide you in this.


Is salty tongue effect normal after eating sichuan peppercorns?

Yes. This happens to me. Some scientists are investigating the possibility of using the peppercorns as a means of reducing people's salt intake.

Potential of Szechuan pepper as a saltiness enhancer, Tram Hong Le Bao, Siree Chaiseri and Yaowapa Lorjaroenphon, International Journal of Food Properties 21(1), pp533-545.


Is it possible to cook semolina or rice with milk in the microwave?

You mean semolina or rice pudding? You can certainly make them in the microwave, the trick is simply to use a bowl that's big enough as well as to stop and stir every few minutes. Here's a recipe saying so, including a picture of the plain glass bowl the author used:

In a big bowl, put all the ingredients together and stir. Put in a microwave oven to bake at maximum power (I used 12 minutes for a 750 Watts oven). Stop every 3 min to stir and make sure the semolina is not stuck at the bottom. Let it cool down and store in the fridge.
From: http://www.cookingninja.com/174-Microwave-semolina-milk-pudding.html

Here's another recipe with similar instructions:

Put the rice into the bottom of a big glass microwave suitable bowl.  Use the largest bowl for your microwave as the milk will boil up the sides.
From: http://foodonabudget.com/content1a/2008/10/how_to_make_an_easy_rice_pudding/

You can find tons of other recipes for microwave rice or semolina pudding on Google, repeating pretty much these two points.


Perhaps a bit of over-analysis going on yes. Generally I'd toss the pan if I was frying a lot of small items such as croutons, or toasting nuts, in order to turn a lot of them over at once.

To toss the pan, first tilt it up so that some of the contents slide to the opposite end and rest against the lip of the pan. Then tilt it back level while simultaneously drawing your arm back. The food should flick up and land back in the middle of the pan (approximately). Practice with a cold pan and a couple of dry ingredients like nuts or pulses.

Bear in mind that tossing the pan generally means the pan loses heat, as you are raising it off the heat source, so if you're cooking something like steak or chicken breast that needs quick cooking, you're probably better off simply stirring it or using tongs.


How do cooks prepare risotto in a restaurant?

It's actually hard to hold when it's almost all the way cooked - it'll start getting gluey if you let it cool off, but could start scorching on the bottom if it's not stirred, and get too runny if you keep adding stock.

Mario Batali said that risotto isn't finicky in the middle - so you can cook it part way, cool it down (I think he said he spread it on sheet pans to cool quickly), then you can add hot stock and cook it from that point, so you've already got a 10 minute head start.

I've also been to a restaurant where it was only served on the hour and half-hour.


Seasoning Cast Iron Pan but without Using Bacon or Lard

Iron cook ware is a great choice. Although it will take a little more effort to keep them in good condition. No need to use plastic tools like you would on Teflon coated pans.

To season, I would use an oil which is not easily damaged by heating.  Vegetable oils have the highest smoke points and may be your best choice. If the pan appears to have a coating from the factory, try to remove this. Water, soap and elbow grease should do it. Do not use the dish washer as these soaps can be slightly caustic. Then dry completely in a moderately hot oven. Remove when fully dry and with a paper towel rub on a very thin coating of oil on the inside surfaces. Return to the oven and raise the heat somewhat, but not enough to smoke the oil. Naturally, you should wear oven mitts for the hot pan. Once the oil appears to have adhered to the pan and seems "dry", repeat the process a couple times and you should have a good coating as starting point.  The entire first seasoning may take a few hours.

I do not recommend using soap of any kind as this can ruin the seasoning you are trying to achieve.

In time your iron skillets and pots will become "black iron" and not only will is have non-stick character but because they are iron they will heat evenly on either electric or gas stoves.


How to prevent Italian style rice pasta from sticking to the pot?

Many of the Italian style gluten-free pastas are made of rice, most of the rest are made of corn or a combination of both. America's Test Kitchen did a taste testing of gluten-free pastas and a brown rice version was the clear winner:

So, my first piece of advice is to choose the pasta carefully, if you don't like a brand try another brand next time. For what it is worth, ATK disliked all of the corn-based pastas.

I looked at a few articles about cooking gluten-free pasta, a few points were repeated in every article. First, start with a big pot of generously salted water. Bring the water to a hard boil before you add the pasta, stir the pasta frequently as it boils, and absolutely do not overcook. You should taste the pasta frequently; it will turn to mush on a dime.

More articles say to not rinse the pasta than call for rinsing the pasta assuming that it is to be served hot. The same goes for regular pasta, you shouldn't rinse pasta except for use cold as in for salads. While I don't have a citation that specifies finishing gluten-free pasta in the sauce, it absolutely makes sense to me to put the not-quite-done pasta in the sauce to finish cooking. Again, taste often, gluten-free pasta overcooks very easily. Reserve some of the cooking water, just like as is recommended for regular pasta, in case you need to loosen the sauce.

Don't be tempted to add oil to the water. It doesn't work to keep regular pasta from sticking, nor does it work for gluten-free pasta.


Freezing soup, then transferring it to bags

Many suggestions for you:

line the containers with the bags, folding the edges down over the container. Pour the soup into the supported bag. When it's frozen it should be easy to remove and you have the container back.
buy plastic (for flexibility) containers, 6 or 8 of them. Freeze in these instead of bags. It's easier to pop the frozen soup out of them, and you don't mind if they are "occupied" in the freezer until the soup is eaten.
as above but you pop them out frozen into a large freezer bag. I do this with large-batch soups like pumpkin or borscht and don't need to wrap each soup block within the larger bag
use something completely different, such as a bowl that you might eat of, to support the bag while you're pouring the soup in. Seal the bag, take it out of the bowl, and lay it on its side to freeze. Later, stand them up in the freezer for easier sorting

Pretty much anything would be better than rigid glass containers that you don't want to leave in the freezer.


Vanilla fudge attempts turn into caramel

It's a somewhat long shot, but if I were you, I'd give it a try again, using another form of vanilla (maybe precook a pod in the milk, then scrape out the seeds and add them), no corn syrup at all, and pay attention to using sweet butter, not cultured butter.

Fudge is all about forming the right size crystals in the supersaturated sugar solution. From your description, no crystals form at all. This could happen if you inadverently invert your sugar (= split it into glucose and fructose). In home cooking, this is usually done on purpose with acid when making non-crystalized candy. So, just in case that either your butter or your vanilla extract contains some acid, I'd use the versions guaranteed not to have any, vanilla pods and sweet butter. It's not sure that they are doing something wrong, because butter in the supermarket is rarely cultured, and vanilla extract doesn't contain acid normally, but it's better to make sure.

On an industrial level, invert sugar is created with enzymes. While corn syrup starts out as starch and not sucrose, I can imagine their enzymes being able to split the fructose off the sucrose in your sugar too. I don't know what they do to the syrup exactly, and maybe the heat will deactivate the enzymes anyway, but I think it is worth a try to make it with pure sugar, so there is no source for enzymes to land in your fudge and invert it.

If none of these is the culprit, then I'm afraid the next likely explanation is the mechanics of the beating. But maybe it's not about the hand vs. mixer beating as such. It's possible that you've been stopping too early, or that changing the attachment used for beating will change the outcome.


Cayenne Latte drink - how to make at home?

I'm not a professional barrista but I spend a lot of time drinking expresso based drinks and I would suggest that you start with a latte base (for a small drink, that would be two shots of expresso and hot steamed milk to the top) and add cayenne pepper to it.  I would also sugest that you only add about a 1/2 teaspoon at first.  You could also add chocolate to create a mole type drink and calm down the heat of the pepper, if needed. Use a dark chocolate, if availible, as you don't want it to be to sweet if you are trying to highlight the spice.

Make sure that you stir it all the way so that you don't get uneven distrubution of the pepper, I would actually add the pepper right after the the shots and stir then, and then again after adding the milk. Also, don't forget that the temperature of the beverage is going to enhance the heat that you get from the pepper, so for the less spice tolerate you will need to tone it way down.


Why does dark chocolate turn white after being in cold for some time?

Its called chocolate blooming.

There are two types:

Fat blooming - cause is not known for certain, but probably the type VI chocolate crystals are more thermodynamically favored, so spontaneous conversion (and exit from the surface of the solid solution constituting the chocolate body) may be possible.
Sugar blooming - the sugar in the chocolate is dissolved by humidity, and the precipitates on the surface.

Fortunately, there are no safety problems with bloomed chocolate, and it can be remelted with no inherent loss of quality.   So bloomed chocolate is perfectly useful in recipes where it will be melted; or it can be melted and re-tempered if desired.


It's a hot pot or steamboat as we call it in Malaysia. It's a clear soup made from stock. Raw ingredients are gradually added to it as it simmers. Soup and the cooked ingredients are fished out when they are done (each time when the pot boils). At the end, you are left with a rich, delicious soup that has flavours of all the ingredients intermingled and it is usually eaten with noodles.

Going by this, it would be classified as a soup or broth. It wouldn't be a stew as flour has not been used to thicken it.


The thinner cakes will cook faster. I can't get more specific without knowing what type of cake you are baking.


How do I control the temperature of burnt sugar?

There's a bit of misinformation in the answers and comments here I'd like to clear up.

Tobiasopdenbrouw's suggestion in his comment that a thinner pan may work better is a good one. A thin aluminum pan is an excellent conductor of heat which is precisely why it would help in a situation like this. It is far more responsive to taking the pan on and off the heat. A heavy pan has a higher thermal mass and is thus slower to respond to changes in temperature, and it will have more carryover heat.

A thinner pan will require more attention from you as it gets near your target temperature, but it's a lot easier to put the brakes on. As you approach your desired temperature take the pan off the heat frequently to check it's temp As soon as you take it off it will quickly stop heating -- there is only minimal carryover heat from the pan, and no magic carryover heat from an other source.

Additionally, adding more sugar will lower the temperature. There is no "solution" that can crystallize. A solution requires a solute and a solvent. There is only one substance present in molten sugar -- sugar.

Spraying water on it is a terrible idea and I advise against it. At best it simply vaporizes instantly to steam. At worst it spatters molten sugar on you, not fun.

In short, treat it like you would a pot of water that you were trying to maintain at a specific temperature. If the water gets too hot, you'd add more water or take it off the heat. The same applies concept to molten sugar.


Why it is not recommended to mix the milk of different days?

Even when kept refrigerated, milk gradually spoils due to micro organisms. In case the first day's milk was on the threshold of spoiling, you are effectively bringing the third days milk also to that condition by mixing it with the first day's milk (which by now may have significant amount of microorganisms).
First day's milk bottle/vessel might have been retrived from the fridge, opened, and kept at room temperature (very short durations), and kept back multiple times by the time the third day's milk arrives. This gives microorganisms opportunity to enter and multiply even if the original milk was Pasteurized and sealed airtight in a sterile packaging.
In fact, curd is propagated by mixing fresh milk with leftover curd. Same with sourdough starter.


Whole Egg, Egg White or Egg Yolk for binding Hamburgers

Generally you'd use the whole egg. The egg white provides most of the structural integrity, but the yolk does a little too. Also, the yolk helps with what might otherwise be a rubbery texture. Letting the patties sit in the refrigerator for half an hour or so will also help them stay together.

I suspect that the answer you linked, talking about how the yolk is the "only binder", is mistaking emulsification for binding. Ground meat, veggies, and egg whites are all water-based mixtures; they don't need lecithin to play nice with each other.

Incidentally, if you like zucchini and carrots and onions inside the burger, you'll like them even more on top of the burger. Take all that stuff you were going to mix in (other than the egg), slice the veggies rather than mince them, add a bit of olive oil and more salt than you think you should, and saute the crap out of them on high heat for a few minutes. Really char it up. Vegetables in a burger don't want to be steamed in a jacket of meat; they want to do their own flavor work.


Can baked savory pastries with ham or bacon be left at room temperature?

That would depend on the source of the meats and the proportion of fat. Bacon I would advise against keeping at room temperature for 24 hours. Been there, done that, and it wasn't pretty.

I regularly take the chance on ham, but I am picky about safety, so I am picky about my meats. One encounter with antibiotic-resistant e-coli (from a restaurant) was enough to teach me that pickiness is much more favorable than a failure in food safety.

The only way I keep ham at room temperature for 24 hours is if it is a) very lean, with all possible fat trimmed before it is finished cooking, and b) if purchased from a supermarket, gently boiled for two hours before use, even if it is being cooked again. This is assuming that you used a large ham of 11 lbs/5 kg or larger; reduce boiling time for smaller hams. I never, ever use a toupee ham, because one never knows whether meat glue is used in it, and in my experience, a ham with meat glue in it does not last as well as a whole ham.


Minimal tasty preparation of raw chayote

Shredding or slicing, sprinkling with salt and resting for about 10 minutes, then squeezing out excess liquid is a good start. Then mix in lime juice, plate, sprinkle with ground chilies for a bit of heat and color.


How much weight of a whole life chicken is a supermarket whole chicken?

Broiler chickens, at least in the US, are bred to grow quickly.  They are usually slaughtered when then weigh about 4 pounds, which is at about 7 to 9 weeks.  In general, a grocery store broiler weighs about 3 to 3.5 pounds.  As the comments above suggest, this is a very general response.  It would be difficult to be more accurate.


How long overnight oats are safe/ok to eat

What would make them unsafe? Oats are shelf stable.  Milk is refrigerator stable for quite some time.


How can you pipe hot melted candy into free-form shapes?

You might try welding gloves or fireplace gloves.  (fireplace gloves tend to be longer, and might go up to your elbow).

They're typically made of suede, with an insulated lining.  I use them instead of pot holders, but they also come in handy when I'm doing large amounts of grilling (once a year, for our departmental picnic, cooking for a couple hundred people).

The fireplace gloves also come in handy when camping, as you can reach in to move logs if you're quick about it.  The only issue is that too long of exposure to hot, dry heat will cause them to harden up and lose their insulating properties.  I have to get a new pair every few years or so because of the way I use them.

I also have some really heavy duty rubber gloves that I got more as a joke -- I'm not sure if they're for haz-mat purposes, or what, but they come in handy for when I have to deal with hot but wet things.  I've also used them when dealing with cleaning out the fridge at work that had gotten pretty scary (it was near a conference room, and people using the conference room would leave stuff in there and forget about it).  I've seen similar gloves, maybe not quite as thick, though, at a restaurant supply store near heavy rubber aprons for the people doing the washing up.

And, if those still don't fit your preferences, you can find silicone potholders ... they've got good grip, and you should be able to roll it into a cone around your piping bag.


How far in advance can I prepare a fruit cup?

I would recommend vacuum sealing. I have found that, if done properly, vacuum sealing should remove all of the air and thus prevent the oxidative process that discolors and deteriorates foods

I have tried this with various cut fruits and vegetables including, but not limited to, avocados, apples, onions, tomatoes, etc. and have found that within 2 or 3 days there was no discoloration or deterioration. I can't speak to longer periods of time as I have always used the cut fruits and vegetables within one to three days, but it works well for up to 2 or 3 days.


How can I remove oil spots from kitchen floor?

If you are worried about stains a degreaser will help. There are many soaps on the market that will work in this context. It is important to clean it quick so the stain doesn't have time to get worse. Bleach can help with stains after the fact but can also leave splotching so may not work for you.

If on the other hand, if you are referring to the slipperiness that comes with grease on the floor, salt works well. Pour salt on the grease then sweep it up with a broom. Degreaser also works again in this situation. Just add a little to your mop water.


For the frame, I would suggest baking a cake, brownies, gingerbread or even cookie dough in a baking sheet (so it's one big, quite thin piece). But put the temperature of the oven lower than if you would use a regular baking mold. You could also use a piece of styrofoam/polystyrene*, covered with tin foil. Then you can use tooth picks to hold everything in place. To cover the tin foil, use sour strips, marshmallows...

As glue you can use chocolate or caramel if it should sit quite steady. You can also use edible glue (this is often used to glue pieces of fondant to cupcakes). If you present it horizontally, you can use a lot (syrup, honey, jello, icing, even a thick pudding...). I think you could even melt some candy and use it as glue. I have no idea however how strong this would be.

*) I'm not sure this is the correct English term. To be clear, I mean this.


What does karate chop in a french bread dough mean?

In context, it means to press down with the blade of your hand, to facilitate folding into thirds:

I put an orange line near the part of the hand you would press with.

This is not a standard culinary term, by the way—the recipe author is being cute.

In practice, you could use the handle of a wooden spoon, or press a little groove in with your fingers, as well.


How can I add meat into a completed tomato sauce?

As the others have mentioned, it won't quite be the same ... however, it can be done, it just won't quite have the same flavor as there isn't a chance for the meat juices to transfer into the sauce, and some issues regarding mixing it back in with the cold pasta.

If I were going to try it, I'd brown the meat, remove some of the fat if it's a really fatty grind, then add some extra sauce (or even other liquid ... maybe dairy, for a classic bolognese) to let it simmer for a bit ... then toss the pasta in with it to reheat.

The extra sauce is the key, otherwise, the meat isn't going to blend in with sauce on the pasta,  If you reheat the pasta in the fresh sauce, it should hopefully mix together more completely.

... but if I were to do it, and wanted to add a meat to an already cooked pasta, I'd probably not choose ground beef as a first choice; I'd probably cook up some sausages, cut it down to an appropriate size for the pasta you're dealing with, and mix that in, possibly adding some extra liquid when reheating the pasta.


The answer probably lies in your question:

refrigerated previously opened milk

Products that have been made shelf-stable by a heating process will be susceptible to spoilage again once the package is opened. While unopened UHT milk will last for months without refrigeration and ESL milk gets up to three weeks (depending on process and refrigerator temperature), once the package is opened, all of them will stay safe for a mere days only. The same is true for plant-based milks like soy milk.
So unless you have introduced some substance that encourages curdling (typically an acid), the curdling indicates that your milk has gone off and is no longer safe. Boiling will not remedy that.


What causes a tomato sauce to have a bitterness and getting rid of it?

A few things can cause tomato sauces to become bitter:

Overcooked spices.  Both basil and oregano can become bitter with long simmers.  Add them near the end of the process.
Under-ripe tomatos.  Store bought tomatoes are often picked green and ripened in the store.  These tomatoes make less sweet sauces (which may be contributing).
Cooking in an aluminium pan.  Aluminium reacts with the acid in the tomatoes and adds an off-putting flavour.
Seeds/skin in the sauce. Both seeds and skins can be bitter.

You can improve a bitter sauce by adding a small amount of baking soda (or salt), and something sweet (but not too much).


Why Do We 'Simmer' Fudge Instead of 'Boiling' it?

Candymaking is extremely sensitive to temperature.  If the mixture heats higher than the point that produces the desired texture, you're basically out of luck.  That makes it very critical that you reach and not exceed your target temperature.

This is particularly difficult when making candy because much of it starts as a sugar-and-water syrup.  Water has an especially high heat capacity, meaning that it takes a relatively high amount of applied heat to raise its temperature.  This is why a big pot of water takes a long time to boil.  It also implies (because diffusivity is calculated from heat capacity and density) that it takes a while for applied heat to diffuse through the entire pot; that is, the bottom of the pot where heat is being applied will be significantly warmer than the top, absent more active circulation like stirring or the pumping action of an immersion circulator.

Anyway, "boiling" implies greater heat application than "simmering".  The more heat you're applying to the bottom of your pot, the greater the difference between the top and bottom.  If you're then measuring the temperature at or near the top, you may be getting a wildly inaccurate measurement of the "total" heat of your syrup.  Once the heat diffuses completely, the mixture will be several degrees warmer than you measured, and that can completely ruin an entire batch of otherwise-delicious fudge.

Simmering is recommended because it gives the heat being applied to your syrup more time to diffuse, which means more even and consistent heating, which means you can reliably hit your target temperature without going over.  If you became some kind of ninth-dan fudge guru, maybe you could boil and know exactly how much heat is enough to hit your target, but don't count on getting there.

The sensitivity of this process is part of the reason that candymaking is considered one of those semi-advanced cooking topics.  If it was easy, we'd probably all overdose on fudge by the time we learned to safely operate a stove.


Can I use a fresh peach in place of preserves?

Preserves are pretty sweet and thick. They're also usually chunky; jam is closer to a puree. If it's just in a marinade that'll get thrown out, texture probably doesn't matter much, but if it's part of a sauce for the pork chop, the chunks can be pretty nice.

The closest approximation would probably be to dice your peach, add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of sugar, and cook it for 5-10 minutes in a saucepan to get it to soften up and get juicy and flavorful.

As a slower but simpler to cooking you could just let it sit for maybe half an hour to macerate; while that won't be quite like preserves, it'll also release some flavors. And if it's for a marinade, that could be part of the marination time, though you might want to give it a stir once or twice. Just using it raw and pureed might not be quite as flavorful, though.


Minimum amount of oil that should be used in deep fryer

If you need a larger basket to fry the amount of food you want to cook, you need more oil as well. If you don't always want to make that much food (or use that much oil) then you need a smaller vessel for deep-frying, such as a second fryer or a small wok or kadai.

If you put less oil in than the minimum it may not cover the food and/or the oil could overheat, depending on how the fryer manages its temperature settings.

Overheating oil can be dangerous and will also burn your food while leaving it raw inside. All around, something to avoid.

You can save and reuse frying oil. There are some good tips at the sites below.

Let it cool fully then filter out food particles (I use coffee filters and a funnel for this; it can be a slow drain, be patient)
Refrigerate used oil to retard bacterial growth
Stop using it if it looks weird or smells funny!

http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/09/ask-the-food-lab-how-many-times-can-i-reuse-fry-oil.html

http://extension.psu.edu/food/preservation/faq/questions-and-answers-about-re-using-frying-oil

http://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/you-can-reuse-frying-oil-article


Yes, you should be fine. Pasta water is used to loosen a condiment, and allow it to be incorporated with the pasta during the final tossing/dressing of the pasta.  The water from traditional pasta will have some starches from the pasta in it, and does sometimes help "thicken" (to a pretty small degree in my experience) a sauce, but that is not typically relied upon.  If your sauce is too thin, just cook it a bit more.  Too thick, add a few tablespoons of pasta water.


Almost certainly: lots of recipes online.

I'd go with the 'porridge' or 'brown rice setting' if your cooker has it.
Concensus on water ratio seems to be about same as for rice.

Here's a question which lists More things you can cook in a rice cooker.

With a quality cooker, you can also make baked beans and tasty onion soup.


Dried garbanzo beans not expanding when soaked

The soak doesn't swell them to 'cooked' level; the cooking does that.
It is true that very old beans will never be tender, but you have no good way to find that out before you spend the next two hours simmering them. [Change the water first & don't salt them until the last half hour].
This covers most of the basics, over several methods - How to Cook Dried Chickpeas (Ultimate Guide)


Which type of onion causes the least eye irritation

The onions that cause the least tears are those with lower sulfur content.  But it turns out that it's not just the variety of the onion that's a factor, but the sulfur content of the soil they're grown in (eg, areas of Georgia, where Vidalia onions are grown).  Of course, this means they don't have the same 'bite' as you'd get from other onions.

In the U.S., at least, they're typically sold as 'Sweet' onions.  They may go under names such as Vidalia, Maiu Sweet, Mayan Sweet, Walla Walla, etc.  They tend to be yellow varieties, but they're fairly obvious in their shape-- they're not round, they tend to wider than the length from the ends.  They also tend to be more wet than regular onions, so they don't store as well, and thus have a shorter season (or they're flown in from South America, for those of us in the U.S.)

If I were to rank them, from least to most tear-causing, I'd say:

sweet onions
green onions / scallions
red onions
other yellow onions
white onions


I am having an issue with leaving macarons to form a skin

The need to leave macarons to form a skin is debatable, but if you feel it's necessary, put them uncovered in the fridge, which will dry them out nicely. Be careful that there's nothing else in there with a strong smell that may taint the macarons, however.


How long should pearl barley be boiled for?

It's hard to give a universal answer to questions like this. But, two reputable sources, The Kitchn and Serious Eats each have the same recommendation of 30 minutes.

The article from The Kitchn discussed Hulled Barley (has the bran left on) taking longer to cook than Pearl Barley, which may be why the packages you are seeing have different times.

I see two other possibilities for differing cooking times:

Target market of that brand. For example, a more upscale brand targeting a more "refined" palette may recommend lower cooking times, as these folks will be more accepting of the tender chewiness of properly cooked barley. On the other hand, cheaper brands are likely targeting lay-folk, and let's face it, people without culinary experience might prefer a more done barley.
There could just be some slight variations in types of barley, where it's grown, etc that impact cooking time. This one is difficult to rule out, and leads me to recommending experimentation! Cook a few different batches to different levels of doneness, and see which you prefer.


If you are speaking of a salmon filet, you must remove the pin bones one by one.  The easiest way to do it is with tweezers or needle nosed pliers.   This brief video demonstrates the technique:

Run the back of your knife across the line where the bones are, from tail to head, to make them pop out more.
Pull each bone, on an angle towards the head of the fish


Distance from charcoal isn't really the issue (some steak recipes, in fact, call for the meat to be cooked directly on the coals).  It's the temperature at the grate you ought to consider.  Granted, distance is one factor in grate temperature.  The amount of lit coals you have is another.

As for proper temperature, it all depends on what you are cooking.  I like cooking my steaks on high heat, about 500-600F.  Burgers at around the 450 range.  Poultry closer to 400.  Look up the "Mississippi Test," often referenced by Steven Raichlen, as a good way to measure your fire temperature.


What type of lavender is normally used in tea blends?

If you want the “real” medicinal plant, get Lavandula angustifolia (formerly Lavandula officinalis), the true or English lavender. The flowers (medical term Lavandulae flos) are harvested when about half of the flowers on a stalk have opened up and the rest is still closed. Cut the whole flower stalks when the morning dew has evaporated, late morning to midday, in full sun. Tie small bundles, and hang upside-down to dry. Use the flowers for tea or other preparations.

True lavender comes in many cultivars that should all be usable in the kitchen. Only if you have set your eyes on a white or pink variety, it may be good to double-check just in case breeding for a specific color has affected scent intensity. (Which would mostly not be a problem in the kitchen and local climate may cause a greater variation, in my experience.)

As a head start, here’s a short list of cultivars that tend to pop up repeatedly when searching for culinary uses. Treat it as a starting point, not as absolute wisdom.

Royal Velvet (dark blue)
Royal Purple (dark blue)
Little Lottie (pink dwarf)
Rosea / Jean Davis (pale pink)
Betty’s Blue (classic purple)
Melissa (white to pale pink)

There are other lavenders that are commonly used in large-scale production of lavender preparations, but I wouldn’t recommend them for consumption, especially alone:

L. latifolia is more pungent, with hints of camphor - totally usable in potpourris or sachets, less so in tea.

Lavandin, L. x intermedia, a hybrid between the former two, is grown for slightly cheaper lavender products, mostly oils used in cosmetic products or household cleaners. Maybe an option, but typically considered „inferior” to the true lavender as it also has some of the pungency of L. latifolia.
However, the cultivar “Provence” is the lavender (or in this case, lavandin) of choice for cook book author Sharon Shipley, who wrote a whole book on cooking with lavender. There’s a difference between using it in teas and savory dishes, though. For the latter, some cuisines also use the soft tips and leaves, similar to rosemary.

Conclusion:
If you have room for just one or two plants, I would recommend a true L. angustifolia.


In general, cold food needs stronger flavors to taste equally good.  A little more seasoning, a little stronger spicing, a touch more acidity.

However, you also have to consider texture and cultural expectations.

I am not sure that cold cooked mushrooms are... expected.  You might want to try it in advance and see what you think.  On the other hand, raw mushrooms would be dissonant as well with stuffing.

I would suggest reassessing what you are taking.  Perhaps a crudite, where your fillings transform into dips, and you supplement the (raw) mushrooms with other vegetables might be a logistically more appropriate dish.

If you want hot dips, they can probably be done in a microwave, if your office has one.


Do I finish a day-ahead sauce before or after refrigerating?

Sometimes finishing is referred to as enriching, and from what I've seen, the finishing ingredient tends to be something that breaks down or otherwise changes in cooking, like walnut oil or cognac. The purpose is to keep the flavour of the ingredient without cooking it; finish it when you reheat it.


Is it safe to store dry food products under the sink?

Your concerns would be moisture, insects and/or rodents.  Simply put your products in airtight containers.  You'll be just fine. (By the way, my mom always stored onions and potatoes under the sink).


What kind of herbs are common in Italian dishes?

Some example of herbs usage here in Italy (I'm 100% italian living near Milan):

Basil: (for its fresh taste)

Pasta with tomato sauce and a couple of leaves of fresh basil on top.
Pizza Margherita: Mozzarella Cheese, tomatoes, basil.
Pesto: basil, parmigiano cheese, pine nuts & olive oil.

Oregano: (a little salty, chosen for its strong parfume)

On top of Focaccia
Mozzarella Caprese (mozzarella, tomatoes, basil & oregano)

Sage (delicate perfume, used to enhance flavours)

Gnocchi with butter & sage, with little parmigiano

Parsley

Mostly used with fish pasta dishes (never with meat!)

Some common mistakes on italian pasta recipes "as seen from abroad" is that we don't really use parsley or oregano everywhere. Many other herbs like tarragon, marjoram, etc... Are rarely used in everyday recipes.


When baking a cake that calls for butter, should you use salted or unsalted?

Generally, you'll want to use unsalted. The amount of salt in salted butter can vary, so most recipes call for unsalted, and then have you add the exact amount of salt. Cake mixes have salt in them, so this would still apply.


How can I store leftover puff pastry or make it more durable?

No, you probably don't want to just squish leftover puff pastry dough together to save it.  While it would be perfectly safe, it would ruin the layering that gives the rise and flakiness that is the reason for using puff pastry.

If you have a large enough section still intact, you could put in the refrigerator for a day or two, to use later.

Otherwise, a typical thing to do would be to prepare sweet or savory snacks with the surplus pieces.   Cut it into convenient shapes.  If you have large enough pieces, sticks would be good, even twisting them to give them an interesting texture.

Then, brush the pieces with butter (or oil), and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar; or grated Parmesan cheese; or rosemary and salt; or some other complimentary flavor.

Bake the pieces up until they are puffed and golden brown and they are very nice snacks or treats.


The trick is not storage, but washing. These types of dishes soak up loads of water if you dip them in. I wash these types of dishes in an empty sink and then try them right away. I would also never put them into the dishwasher.

If they get too damp you need to dry them our, the best way I've found is to warm an oven, turn it off, and then to put the dishes in leaving the door cracked open. The heat will drive the moisture out and the open door will allow the moisture to escape.

As for storage a dry cupboard should do just fine.


I'm not quite sure what precisely creates the "biting" flavor/effect you're discussing, but I imagine it's a different mixture of acidity or something (since you also notice it in pickles).

Anyhow, I don't know precisely how to obtain your desired effect, but I do know that there are various fermented milk processes in various countries that create similar yet different final products.  The greatest variables tend to be the exact composition of the fermenting bacteria culture (which sometimes is just a single type of bacteria, but other times contains various cultures) and the fermentation conditions (where time and temperature tend to be chosen based on what's ideal for the particular bacterial culture in question).  Temperature in particular can change the relative proportion of bacteria strains in the final product, and since different bacteria may produce somewhat different waste products as they grow, the flavors will be altered.

The best way to reproduce your desired effect would thus be to find a "live culture" sample of buttermilk with the flavor you like and then ferment it under the same conditions that were used originally.  Alternatively, you could experiment with varying fermentation temperature with your existing culture, and/or proportion of starter to fresh milk and see what happens.


How can I bake Cannelés more evenely with a big silicon pan?

It's the cookie sheet that's the problem as it impedes air circulation to the middle of the form. The hot air circulates around the outside but it can't get to the middle, so the outer ones get over-baked and the inner ones under-baked. Changing the baking time or temperature isn't going to help.

As for the solution you have 2 choices (other than a fan oven):

Get a supporting pan below that allows air circulation, you can buy mesh sheets instead of cookie sheets
Cut the form into pieces. Air can't circulate well to the center of that large sheet, so cut it in half and place them apart. They seem to be made of silicone, so a box cutter will go through it no problem. If you cut carefully you won't lose any of the forms, or you could cut through the middle of a line of them


How long do pre-chopped portobello mushrooms last in the refrigerator?

This is probably way too late, but for the benefit of others with the same question...
I have been taught, and my experiences verify, that fresh mushrooms of any sort should only be washed if absolutely necessary and if do so, to do it at the last possible moment. I just brush off any noticeable growing media and continue on. For Portobello mushrooms, I do this while cleaning out the "Gills" so it takes no extra time whatsoever.
That said, Pre-chopping / slicing, will reduce the shelf life over the long term, but for an overnight stay in the fridge it will not be a problem.
I would love to hear how you made out. Did you end up washing them? Your experience will also help others with the same question.


Stir-frying: how much of the oil evaporates?

The boiling point of most cooking oils is much higher than their smoke points.  The boiling point of olive oil, for example, is around 300°C (572°F), which is hotter than the temperature of a pan on a typical residential range/cooktop.  With that said, alcohols and esters which make up the flavor and fragrance of the oil will have lower boiling points and will therefore evaporate.  That should not significantly alter the nutritional content of the oil.  Furthermore, much of the perceived loss of oil is likely due to a combination of absorption of the oil into the items being fried, and also due to splatter.  The latter cannot be easily quantified due to its connection with the cooking vessel and the technique of the cook.


How can I get my layer cake to cook more evenly/not burned?

In a conventional oven, the majority of the heat is at the top.

You don't mention lowering the oven rack to compensate for the change in height. I'm fairly certain that would solve your problem.

Center rack is normally recommended - if you used a higher rack then that's definitely the reason it burned. But even if you used the center rack, you might need to lower it for a particularly tall cake. You might also need to extend the cooking time slightly to compensate for the lower effective temperature.

Note that this doesn't apply to convection ovens, which have a relatively constant temperature throughout.


What's the line between salsa and guacamole?

Part of the problem is that "salsa" doesn't mean just one thing to everyone. If you do a web search for "avocado salsa" you get images ranging from liquid to chunky:

Similarly, there's no one "correct" way to make guacamole. Some people like it smooth and thick - hummus-like, if you will, other people like it partially mashed and partially chunky... almost the same as the chunky-style salsa.

So, how do we set limits if the products are so varied?
We really can't. I could write long "definitions" claiming that guacamole should be X% avocado and must be mashed in an authentic molcajete rather than in chunks or pureed... that salsas should be X% or less avocado and must contain things like tomato, onion, tomatillo... but you'll always be able to find something that calls itself "salsa" but seems more like "guacamole" or the other way around.
The important thing is, it's all delicious. Enjoy it!

The other part of your problem is that guacamole is a kind of salsa. From Wikipedia:

Salsa is the Spanish, Italian, Greek and Turkish (salça) term for sauce, and in English-speaking countries usually refers to the sauces typical of Mexican cuisine known as salsas picantes, particularly those used as dips. Salsa, contrary to common belief, is in fact not a condiment, although it may be used to flavor various food items.
Salsa is often a tomato-based sauce or dip that is a heterogeneous mixture that includes additional ingredients such as onions, chilies, beans, corn, and various spices. It is typically piquant, ranging from mild to extremely hot.

If you look under the "types", you will find guacamole.

Guacamole is thicker than a sauce and generally used as a dip; it refers to any sauce where the main ingredient is avocado.

You'll also find "Creamy avocado salsa".

Creamy avocado salsa is a sauce made from avocado, lime, cilantro, jalapeño or serrano peppers, garlic, olive oil, cumin, and salt.

Still, they're both "salsas".
So, in the end, there is no way to separate the two... though, if I were at a restaurant and order "guacamole" and they give me the first image at the top... I'd complain. Any of the other three, I'll take.


Why is the dough in cheap pizza places so bad?

Well, the most obvious difference is that the two "better" restaurants you mention serve brick-oven style pizza, which is probably quite different from the cooking method in a "cheap sub-style pizza place."  Brick oven pizzas are generally cooked at a much higher temperature for a much shorter time, and the surface they are cooked on causes significant changes to the crust.  You'll get much greater oven spring, a crisper outer crust layer, a dryer bottom crust, and a softer interior due to the oven spring and short bake.

All those things already will make a huge difference in crust characteristics.  But the dough you're describing (rubbery, spongy, few bubbles) also sounds a bit underdeveloped.  Higher-quality pizza shops will often allow a longer time for fermentation (which also increases flavor, as well as producing better texture); the stuff you describe may be "rushed" somewhat.

Although you say "thin crust," I'm assuming you're not talking about the thinness of, say, NY Style, but rather an intermediate crust depth (not as much as "Sicilian" but not as thin as brick oven, Neapolitan, or NY Styles). At least that's the kind of crust I associate with the kind of "sub-shop" pizza you're describing.

If that's correct, there could be other problems too.  Places like that may not have confident workers stretching the dough, and they overcompensate to avoid tears or holes -- this means they often don't stretch the dough as thinly, may roll out the dough and deflate it a bit, may use a lower hydration dough (which is easier to handle), and may use a higher-gluten flour.  Lower hydration doughs can often produce a denser and less tender product.  Moreover, high-gluten flour will toughen significantly as the pizza begins to cool, and a thicker crust improperly baked may also have a "gum line" right below the ingredients where the dough isn't cooked as thoroughly.  The moisture from that gum line can also migrate down to the crust during cooling and toughen the crust.  Pizza packaging can also make a difference here: those rippled sheets some places put pizza on help to take moisture away and avoid some of the toughening in heavier crusts; without them, a dense dough can also toughen.

To sum up, here are a few things that may be contributing to the "rubbery" experience compared to your preferred brick-oven style:

higher gluten flour (when used inappropriately)
low dough hydration
inadequate fermentation time
inadequate rest after shaping
heavy rolling out of dough, rather than stretching
lower oven temp
less ideal baking surface
longer bake time
thick or medium crust not baked through
bad packaging

There are other possible causes, but I imagine these are part of the issues you've experienced.

As for the hypothesis of frozen or pre-made dough, that could be an issue, but there's no reason pre-made frozen dough necessarily will produce bad crust.  (There will generally be some quality loss, but it's mostly flavor.)  It's perfectly possible to make a tender, flavorful, non-rubbery crust with frozen dough (assuming the proper recipe).  Frozen dough might contribute to the problem if defrosting and proofing time is inadequate; while convenient, frozen dough needs plenty of time to thaw and get ready before baking.

That said, a final issue in some pizza places may be dough schedule.  A lot of small-scale pizza shops don't make new batches of dough every day, and if they aren't careful about storage and prep, the dough that's "too young" or "too old" may have undesirable characteristics, including bad texture.  (As mentioned above, your description sounds like "too young" dough, if anything.)


How to get stable and long lasting high temperatures in charcoal grill?

I'm not sure how many steaks you're doing at once, but if you're not using the entire grill surface, stack the charcoal up. (Not sure how well it'd work with the entire grill surface and, e.g., two starters full of charcoal. With the grill open, it'll surely work.)

You can cook steaks with the lid off, that'll likely lead to the coals burning faster (hotter).

Stacking the charcoal does two things:

the stack is higher, so it gets the charcoal closer to the meat. You can't lower the grate on a Weber kettle, unfortunately.
there are more briquettes under the meat, each putting out heat.

A good stack is hot enough to brown a steak, even if you put it on the grill dripping with marinade (not that you should). Make sure to have a pair of tongs, you won't want your hands anywhere near it.


How can I avoid from turning mushrooms brown while freezing it?

One suggestion is to buy dried mushrooms and rehydrate them when you need them.

As for freezing, as you probably know if you freeze them and thaw directly without any intervention you will probably get brown, mushy mushrooms.  There are a few ways to avoid this.

If you blanch the mushrooms first in some boiling water, then put them in an ice bath, that should stop the enzymes that cause the browning and also help with the texture some.  This method should also retain the most flavor of any of the preservation methods.

As a side note, I highly recommend going from freezer to cooking directly without thawing - this should reduce the amount of mushiness you will get.

I find that slicing and sauteing the mushrooms first in some oil or butter, then freezing them, works great for most uses, since sauteed is how I usually prefer my mushrooms anyway.  I just take them out of the freezer and throw them directly into the meal.

In my house the most common method is as I first mentioned, we buy dried portabellos etc and just rehydrate them into our meals.  However blanching and then freezing is often better for texture and taste, it just takes a little more time.

There are some great mushroom preservation methods available on this site.


Best spices to use on minced quorn in spaghetti sauce and other recipes

Simple answer:  I would recommend using whatever herbs or spices you would use if you made the same dish with meat.  So, for a Bolognese sauce, I would pick thyme and bay, for an "alla vodka" sauce, basil and garlic, and for Marinara, oregano and peppercorn.  Given that the underlying product (quorn) has virtually no flavor of its own -- or, to the extent it does, it is not a flavor I personally would seek to highlight -- I would not worry about which herb or spice best complements it.


Yes, mould (or mold) can be invisible. When an item is visibly moldy, the visible part of the mold is actually the fruiting body. (You can think of a "fruiting body" like the flower on a plant. It's the structure that produces and distributes spores, much like flowers produce seeds.) The main body of the mold is a fine network of root-like structures called hyphae. The hyphae extend through the food item, digesting it to convert it into food for the mold. Once the mold has enough energy, it produces fruiting bodies, which in turn produce spores that allow the mold to spread through the air to other food items.
Hyphae are usually invisible to the naked eye. So yes, you could be eating food items that have mold hyphae growing through them that just haven't fruited yet. The hyphae cause chemical changes in the food which make it unsafe to eat.
I've noticed this myself with homemade baked goods that have sat around for several days. There's usually a period of a day or two where the item will taste strange, but before there's visible mold. (Interestingly, the particular strain of mold I have in my kitchen tastes a bit like cooked pineapple. I love pineapple, so it actually tastes good at first.) I often eat half a muffin or slice of bread before noticing that it has an unusual taste. But partway through eating that muffin, I'll start to notice the new flavor, and it starts to taste not so good.
My advice is to listen to your taste buds, and if you get partway through eating something and it starts to taste bad to you, take that as a sign that it might not be a good idea to continue eating it. That feeling is not always because of food spoilage, though. Sometimes it's because you're starting to get full, or the food is too salty, or one of a long list of other reasons why that food item might not agree with you.
Try to pay attention to what food items start to taste bad to you, and look for patterns over time. If it's usually with a particular type of food that's been sitting around for a while, then maybe you're not storing that food correctly and it's starting to spoil. If it happens repeatedly with different batches of the same type of food, you may have an allergy or sensitivity to an ingredient in that food, and you should consult a doctor or nutritionist for help in figuring that out. Some foods, like apples and potatoes, have a high satiety value. Foods with a high satiety value can make you feel like you've had enough to eat before you've actually eaten enough, and continuing to eat that food may make you feel nauseous. This is useful if you're trying to lose weight, but inconvenient if you have a small budget and you're trying to make that food item a staple of your diet.


Why do they put the jelly-like substance in pork pies?

There used to be a good reason to add the jelly to the meat pie: food safety. In the time before refrigerators, it was hard to keep meat without some spoilage. But a slaughtered fully grown pig meant some hundred kilos of meat, and it wasn't eaten on a single day.

Most of the bacteria which spoil meat need oxygen to proliferate. So once you pack the meat into a clinging skin, it keeps for longer. This is one of the reasons why people bothered to bake meat pies instead of roasts in the first place.

But there is a problem with meat pies. As the other answers mentioned, the meat steams while being baked, and this steam must be gathered below the upper crust and vented through a hole. You can't tightly wrap the meat in the crust and then bake; the steam will probably open the seam, resulting in an irregularly shaped pie, and the crust still won't cling. So, a meat pie has some space between the meat and the roof.

I don't know how quickly such a pie will dry out, as ElendilTheTall suggested. Surely, this is a factor. But I bet that, if you keep it outside of a refrigerator, it will spoil long before it dries. Filling this space with jelly (which happens to be available in big amounts too - after all, we just slaughtered our big pig and want to cook lots of it as quickly as possible, so we probably have more stock than we can use up) practically seals the meat airtight against bacteria. And while the cooks from that time didn't know about bacteria, they sure knew how quick a piece of meat spoils visibly (smellably?). This is how the traditional jelly-topped meat pie recipe was born.

We have refrigerators today, but we still follow the recipes as they always were. I don't see any reason not to. Drying out is probably a factor. And as for the taste - I have eaten more French patês than English meat pies, and maybe there is some difference. They never looked like on sarge_smith's picture. But I definitely like the jelly layer. I must confess that I have always eaten it in good restaurants or home made, so maybe the poor quality has ruined it for you.

But anyway, if you want to bake meat pies without it, you don't have to include it. The problem is that, if you leave the space hollow, you'll have a cosmetic problem (your crust will probably shatter when you try to cut it) and the already mentioned drying possibility. The solution is to bake the pie without the upper crust. You'll then have meat pie slices which only have crust on three sides. If you don't want a baked crust to form on the meat, or if you experience heat control problems because of the missing insulator, use a temporary cover (aluminum foil, bacon stripes, or lay some big lettuce leaves on it and throw out later, or you can try a plate, but must somehow leave an opening for the steam). If you want a pie with four crust sides, blind bake a sheet of pastry pre-cut for the open side (allow for shrinkage when cutting), then glue it to the meat pie somehow. Sticky honey glaze, or a layer of cream cheese should work (as would jellied stock :) )

This doesn't guarantee that you won't get some congealed fluid within the pie. sarge_smith correctly pointed out that the meat in a pie is collagen-rich, and all the juices which would become roast drippings in roasted meat are staying between the meat and the crust. Some will get absorbed, but maybe not all. It may be worth to try making the pie with ground tender meat. I am however not sure whether this will provide you with a good jelliless pie, or with a pie with a soggy crust.


My first thoughts are this which is actually a scraper but I wouldn't use a metal scraper in a bowl. Being flexible plastic, it flexes and molds itself to the inside of a bowl and allows easy removal of dough.


Does different percentage chocolate set differently?

For glazing the best is to use a couverture chocolate which is richer in cocoa butter than the standard chocolat (more than 31% for dark chocolate): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Couverture_chocolate
But generally you can't find it in supermarket and you will need to buy or order in from a specialized shop. And when you check the nutritional informations, a lot of chocolates we find supermarkets will also have a cocoa butter percentage higher than 31%! The problem with these is that they are often the low quality chocolates, and their taste won't be so great and have a negative impact on the final taste of your cake...
So the best way is to try different types, ideally with the same recipe, and see which one works the best! Be patient, it took me forever to find an acceptable one... Also, make sure that your glazing recipe is good!


Cooking pinto beans in a pressure cooker

There doesn't seem to be much of a difference in nutrition between pressure cooking and boiling beans. Cooking at pressure cooker temperatures at 10, 20, or 40 minutes instead of boiling in a pot changed the nutrition/antinutrient content and digestibility by less than 5%.

Soaking prior to cooking was generally found to be advantageous. However, the results were not unanimous, and it didn't change very much in terms of nutrition. Soaking and discarding the water was found to:

reduce the carbohydrate fraction and maintain/increase fiber content.
reduce mineral content, but increase bioavailability.
reduce the oligosaccarides that cause flatulence.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308814604004649

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2621.2010.02395.x


Why do some meats get tougher with higher temperatures, while others become more tender?

This is a product of the cut more than of the animal. You're comparing shank with steak, which are two very different cuts.  In general, to get a tender cut with high temperature cooking you want a cut with lots of fat and connective tissue to render.  Leaner cuts will become dry and tough.

The shank is a cut you could also get from a cow, so you could just as easily be working with beef (or veal) shank, in which case you would follow the same principle of higher temp = more tender.  This is due to the large amount of connective tissue (and fat, to a lesser extent) in the shank, as well as the fact that its a harder working part of the animal.  Cooking to a high temperature breaks down the connective tissue in the meat, leading to a moister, more tender finish.

A steak, however, has less connective tissue, so overcooking it just makes it dry and tough.  You don't necessarily want it too rare though-- while for leaner steaks many people would say the rarer the better, for very heavily marbled and fatty cuts (like ribeyes) leaving them too rare fails to render the fat, which remains in tough, white streaks and interferes with the texture of the steak.  It should be noted that you could theoretically get a goat steak and the same principles that apply to beef would apply to it as well.


What is the name of this drink and is there a substitute for the pineapple?

From the description of how this beverage is made, it is not fermented.  Four hours, at refrigerator temperature, and without any inoculation from an active bacterial culture simply will not cause any significant amount of fermentation.

Instead, what is happening is that the enzyme bromelin and acid present in pineapple is curdling the milk proteins, lending it a thicker texture.  This is very analogous to some types of cheese making.

I was not able to determine a name for this beverage.


How to fry crispy chips but not too brown?

Thickness is important and there are different strategies for dealing with different thicknesses.  But if you're having a problem getting them dry and crisp in the center before the exterior browns too much, there are a few standard suggestions.  In order of complexity/extra work:

Make sure you're frying at an optimal temperature.  You might try varying a bit: going a little lower in temperature might allow the chips to finish cooking before they brown too much.  But it could also make them greasy or soggy if you go too far, so this may not be ideal.
Rinse the raw chips in water before frying.  This removes some of the surface starches that will lead to faster browning.
If you're willing to do even more work: After rinsing in cold water, drop the raw chips briefly in boiling water and cook briefly (for a couple minutes).  Strain them or pull them out with a large spider before they begin to fall apart.  Better yet, add a little vinegar (about 1 Tbsp. per quart) to your water, which will help the chips cook longer without falling apart and will remove even more surface starch.  Let them cool and dry for a few minutes before frying.

For more details on the last two tips, see this article at Serious Eats (which contains photos of the results).


Need Help Identifying Characteristics of Vinegar in a Carolina BBQ Sauce

The way that brands of the same kind of vinegar can vary is often water content, i.e. the concentration of acid in the vinegar. Some will be more concentrated and therefore more acidic than others, when you switch to a vinegar that is more concentrated than another your result is more acidic and therefore harsh. There's no real standard or rule that I know of when it comes to vinegar strength, and it's not on the labelling, so it's hard to know what you're getting. In general I've found store brands to be weaker than more expensive brands, so I think you're getting inconsistent results because of inconsistent acidity in the vinegars you buy.

If you are going to get a consistent result you need to develop a method which will compensate for the inconsistency, there's more than one possibility that comes to mind:

Be scientific and use PH strips to measure the acid content of the vinegar you are using. Measure the acidity of the vinegar you've had the best success with and then add water to a stronger vinegar in order to make the PH match. You could also get an expensive electric tester for this but PH strips are cheap (a hundred for less than $10), reliable and accurate
Use your sense of taste. If you are using a stronger vinegar you'll need less of it, so start with a lower amount, say half, then add small amounts until it has the flavor you want. The consideration with this method is that adding less vinegar means less liquid overall, giving you a thicker sauce. You'll probably want to add a bit of water to compensate for that, but when you do it will dilute the flavors, including the acidity

The scientific method's main benefit is that it gives you the most consistency, you'll get the right acid balance every time without guesswork. One's sense of taste can change significantly depending on many factors, for instance if you have a cold, what you've eaten recently, even mood, so if absolute consistency is what you want then a bit of chemistry is the way to go.


What would cause the albumen of a hard boiled egg to turn purple?

Everything you need to know: Google for "Purple Deviled eggs".

But if you didn't pickle it, then beware.

  Pink or iridescent egg white (albumen) indicates spoilage due to Pseudomonas bacteria. Some of these microorganisms—which produce a greenish, fluorescent, water-soluble pigment—are harmful to humans.
  Source: United States Department of Agriculture


Can I cook with nearly ripe butternut squash?

Unripe winter squash taste different from ripe, but you can treat unripe, peeled butternut like summer squash with good results.

My personal preference is to pluck any later flowers rather than let unripe fruit develop. These can be eaten raw or stuffed and cooked (my go-to method is seasoned cream cheese and chive).


Can I pastuerize eggs for eggnog without sous vide?

A simpler option (recommended by the FDA food safety website) is to use a cooked egg base:

  Combine eggs and half the milk as indicated in the recipe. (Other ingredients, such as sugar may be added at this step.)
  Cook the mixture gently to an internal temperature of 160 °F, stirring constantly. The cooking will destroy Salmonella, if present. At this temperature, the mixture will firmly coat a metal spoon (but please don’t lick the spoon if the custard is not fully cooked!).
  After cooking, chill the mixture before adding the rest of the milk and other ingredients.

Cooked nog recipes can be easily found by Googling.

In my family's traditional recipe, the egg whites are whipped separately and then folded into the yolk/cream/sugar mix. This wouldn't really be an option with a cooked egg base, but you can substitute whipped cream (which is far more readily available pasteurized) to get the same texture.


How should I convert my Victoria sponge to a chocolate sponge?

Replace 2oz of flour with the cocoa powder. If you add an extra 2oz of dry ingredients, the ratio of wet to dry will be off and you will end up with a dry sponge.