Update:  sorry, this line is layered steel and anodized aluminum construction.

From the Amazon product description (almost certainly direct from the manufacturer), emphasis added:

  LTD2 is safe on all stovetops - except induction and backed by a
  lifetime warranty. The “workhorse” of all cookware shapes, All-Clad
  fry pans' versatile shape and size make them a frequent choice for
  scrambling eggs and bacon on Sunday morning, or preparing a quick
  chicken sauté dinner on a weeknight. Our conventional fry pans go in
  the oven and under the broiler.

That is one of the primary benefits of the good All-Clad stuff, or similar cookware from other brands.

The only pots you don't want to put in the oven are ones with phenolic (sp?) or other plasticized handles or knobs--although some of these are rated to 400F degrees.  I also would not put non-stick pots in an oven above about 450F, or under the broiler.

All steel and aluminum pots are great, partially because they are oven and broiler safe.

Before I switched to all-steel exterior all-clad, I used anodized aluminum (the old, original Calphalon).   It also went into the oven and under the broiler without issue.   My current all-steel all clad has been going in the oven and under the broiler for many year without an issue.


What's the source of the sweetness in tomato sauce that's simmered for at least four hours?

I think caramelization might be the wrong word there. I would go for concentration. While some caramelization does occur around the rim of a pot of tomato sauce as the sauce reduces (and it's good to stir this residue into your sauce), the main increase in sweetness is due to a concentration of all things tomato-y as the water in the sauce evaporates.

Speeding up this process is not only possible, but, in my opinion, highly desirable. A long- simmered tomato sauce can often have an overcooked taste to it. One method to speed things up is to strain your canned tomatoes through a fine-mesh strainer, or something equivalent. Use what remains to start your sauce in the normal way and keep it at a simmer. The liquid, however, you can heat more rapidly at a low boil since there are very little tomato solids left in it to get that overcooked flavor. Once your liquid has been reduced by 60-75%, you can add this back to your simmering tomatoes.

If you start your sauce with fresh tomatoes, the quickest way to accomplish this is to freeze them. Once thawed, all their liquid will pour off easily. Boil down this liquid as described, quickly sauté your remaining solids, and then blend them into your reduced liquid with an immersion blender. This results in a very rich and flavorful thickened sauce that still has the brightness of fresh tomatoes and can be done in a fraction of the time mentioned in your question.


Silicone utensils are changing the taste of my egg whites

Assuming that your spatula and cookware is completely clean of any residual food, I strongly suspect that cooking spray is your issue. If I'm cooking something very bland (like egg white) I won't use cooking sprays for exactly that reason - I taste it too. Do you have a microwave? You may not need any oil at all, although scrambled egg (or egg white) in a microwave without oil can actually be a tricky technique (which I'm pretty sure is covered here). With a high quality, new, non-stick pan you might also be able to get away with a truly negligible amount of oil by dampening a paper towel with vegetable oil and wiping that on the surface. Mimicking the so-called-fat-free-sprays by using a paper towel dampened with vegetable oil might be a much better choice for you.


Just make sure that you shock the asparagus in iced water after you blanch it. The reason some/most vegetables become limp after blanching is because they have been heated and continue to cook on residual heat. An ice bath, or just running it under cold tap water will stop the cooking process and preserve the crispness.


Pork: sirloin vs tenderloin. Which one is most tender?

Preparation is key, as with most meals. The difference (in tenderness) between a pork sirloin and a pork tenderloin is relatively minor but the tenderloin is generally more tender (as the name implies). In this diagram you can see that they are adjoining cuts from the same primal cut (the Loin). Once you start preparing these cuts the final dish may result in sirloin that has been rendered more tender than the tenderloin. A slow-roasted sirloin may end up 'more tender' than braised tenderloin.


How can I save my curry - it's way too oily!

Allow it to cool, then put it in the fridge for a few hours. The fat should rise to the top and harden, making it easier to scoop away.

If you can't wait for it to cool, either skim the oil off with a spoon or use some kitchen paper to soak it up.


Golden syrup is indeed gluten free, as neither sugar cane or beet contains gluten. In fact, beet fibre is used in many gluten-free products. See the Tate & Lyle site for more information:

http://www.lylesgoldensyrup.com/healthandnutrition.php


Vegetable Broth/Stock from Kirkland Organic No-Salt Seasoning

Converting comment to answer.

How much salt could a boulion cube have? Certainly no more than the volume of the cube itself. Generally when you make a broth, it needs salt or it tastes insipid, flat and flabby. Just reduce the salt in your recipe by however much boulion cube you are using and it will balance out fine.


Minimum preparation for baking a whole fish

You will want to scale the fish, definitely. If you don't the result will be absolutely awful as the scales will come off in cooking and get all over the place. They won't stay attached to the skin for easy removal.

Other than gutting and scaling (and a thorough wash) preparation before cooking depends on the effect you want on the table, and how much you want to de-bone it. I'm not a fan of fish heads so I remove them before baking, but you may want to leave it on if you like that look. I usually remove all the fins but the tail as well as I find that it's easier to do before cooking than after as you can get lots of little bones from them if cooked.

Other than that you can marinade them, or salt the insides for 20 minutes to firm up the fish, but that's totally optional.


How to remove pizza pan from oven without a peel?

You can use a spatula or tongs to pull pizzas off of a pizza pan/stone in the oven onto an upside down baking sheet, cutting board, or even a plate, assuming your pans are just flat surfaces, like a pizza stone.

You can also assemble pizzas on the upside down baking pan and slide them off it onto the stone in the oven.


Coffee roasting, worth upgrade from popcorn popper

Domestic coffee roasters are usually 'fluid-bed', barrel or 'stirrer' type.

Popcorn poppers and most low-end purpose built roasters are fluid-bed. That is you agitate the beans by pumping hot air to roast the beans.
Barrel types have a rotating barrel with fins inside to agitate the beans.
Stirrer types have a pot and arms inside that are turned to stir the bean ensuring an even roast.

Upgrading from a popper to another fluid bed usually just buys you some convenience and increased roasting capacity. That being said, I had an iRoast 2 fluid-bed and that lasted at least 2 years. It was still functioning when I upgraded so it probably still works. So it may also be overall cheaper.

IMO, it's more worthwhile to upgrade to a barrel or stirrer type like the Behmor or the iCoffee. They take longer to roast, but you can achieve much better roasts and they have more capacity than fluid-beds.

Edit: Differences between roasters

Just a note between the differences in roasters.

Fluid-beds tend to roast very quickly. 10-15 mins total roast time. But this means that the outside of the bean roasts first and the inside is often lighter. The result is often a bit more acidic or 'bright'. The forced air however, does disperse smoke very quickly and it's a bit cleaner. It still has the capacity to set off your fire alarm.

More traditional designs tend to have longer roast times. I clock about 28 minutes. The slower process gives you a bean that has the same colour inside and out. Anecdotally, I would say most people prefer this. Many of the barrel type also produce a lot of smoke and not suitable for indoor roasting. However, the models I mentioned - the Behmor and the iCoffee - have after burners. This means they actively vent the smoke through a stage that burns up the access smoke and are suitable for indoor roasting.


whats biggest joint of lamb I can use in a 3.5L slowcooker

You can use a slow cooker for as big a piece of meat as will fit in it and still allow the lid to close. There is no strict need for extra room in the crock.
That said, you will probably want some extra room for spices, stock, et cetera. But so long as you can physically fit all your ingredients, it'll all work.


is it okay to freeze calamari after cooking, even though it was frozen at time of purchase?

All sorts of foods that were once frozen, are thawed, cooked, and then re-frozen for storage.  There is not a safety issue here, as long as the food was thawed, cooked, cooled, and re-frozen properly.  The long-term concern is quality.  There are two issues.  First, dehydration (commonly known as freezer burn) can occur with longer term freezer storage.  Secondly, freezing and thawing often degrades the cell structure of a product, impacting it's texture.  This is often undesirable. You can see other questions on this site about packaging for, and length of time for storage in, the freezer.


Should I taste-test food before serving it?

Any halfway competent chef should indeed be tasting.  The only way to know whether you're putting up good food is to check it yourself - and you'd better be consistent if you want to continue getting paid for it.

That's not to say that all chefs do, nor that there's any one standard for how frequently to taste or what method should be used.  It's pretty obvious that using your hands to taste or double-dipping is frowned on... but shortcuts do happen when it's the middle of the rush and you have 30 things to be doing at once.

The best practice I've personally seen in a commercial kitchen was to have a large set of spoons at each station, kept with the "business end" submerged in hot water with a mild sanitizer solution.  Each chef also carried a few clean towels which they changed out copiously throughout the evening (these have a million uses, from wiping hands dry to cleaning plate rims to handling hot pan handles).  When tasting, we'd grab a spoon, tap off excess water, wipe with a clean towel if necessary, take a small taste, and discard.  This got to be as much of a habit as washing your hands after handling raw meat or wiping down your cutting board.  The used spoons would be collected and washed regularly along with used pans and so on, then returned to the line.  With a system like this there's minimal risk for contamination and relatively little waste, except for frequent washing.

At home, you can play things a bit looser, unless you like washing all of your spoons every night.  Double-dipping isn't a big concern unless you're ill, in which case you shouldn't really be cooking for people.  You're probably introducing your friends and family to just as much contamination in the form of dust and such simply by having them in your home.

EDIT: I agree with Jefromi's point in comments, so I want to emphasize this further.

Safety aside, I strongly believe that tasting is necessary to make you a better cook.  It teaches you how to make corrections on the fly and balance flavors, rather than simply following a recipe.  As a matter of fact, even if you're following a recipe, you will need to account for variation in things like produce.  Fruits vary in their flavor depending on how ripe they are, where they were grown, whether it was a good season... The vegetables that I get at my local market may be a slightly different variety from yours... Meats vary widely depending on how the animal is fed and raised, even if you're using the same cuts.  Even when using packaged ingredients, you can't guarantee complete consistency unless you use the exact brand as written in a recipe.  (And I dare say that if your recipes uses only packaged ingredients, you can do much better.)  Recipes cannot account for this sort of variation in anything but the broadest strokes.  It's up to you to balance all of this, plus the preferences of yourself and your guests.  If you're only tasting when you've finished cooking, it's probably too late to correct any problems.

Like any skill, cooking ability is improved by practice and feedback.  Tasting as you go provides you with immediate feedback on how the dish tastes and what it needs, rather than just at the very end when you sit down to eat.  Learning how flavors interact, how much seasoning is enough, and so on are fundamentals.   They're what help you get creative, go beyond cooking someone else's dishes, and start coming up with your own.

So: yes, you should taste, and you should taste often.  There are many ways to deal with safety concerns, but there is no other way to get better at fixing your mistakes before they hit the table.


I added too much corn starch into my potato cutlets - what do I do now?

My advice is to throw it away and start over. You could possibly salvage it by adding more potato and other ingredients, however this is not likely to work and you'll end up throwing more food and time away. If you are going to use more ingredients you're better off trying again.


I believe what you are looking for is Chow-chow.  There are many variations but the basic seasoning are generally the same. There are recipes all over the web.


Applesauce can substitute for either sugar or oil. Usually it is used in replacement for oil as an ingredient for keeping the item moist - banana bread, etc. It isn't a good substitute for butter since it doesn't have anything close to the same taste.

As for ratios:
1:1 as a vegetable oil substitute.

1:1 for sugar if the apple sauce is sweetened. If natural you may need to add sugar. You will need to adjust the amount of liquid down in the recipe to account for the applesauce liquid you are adding.


The way I found that works is:

make a normal Yorkshire pudding batter mix.
heat some oil (medium heat) in a large frying pan and turn on the grill to medium heat.
treat the Yorkshire mix as a pancake - pour it into the pan, and cook until lightly browned on each side.
once both sides are browned, pop the pan under the grill - this will cause the pudding pancake to start to rise and brown further. once one side is done, flip it and repeat.
when you remove the pan from the grill, the pudding will start to deflate - it is soft enough to use as a wrap !


Using muffin/cupcake pan for basque burnt cheesecake

I expect that you will need to change the baking temperature or (mostly) the cooking time.
The smaller muffin pans have a large surface area so the heat will penetrate quicker and cook your cheesecake quicker.
I suggest you experiment, check to see if there are cheesecake recipes that use muffin pans to have an idea about cooking time and temperature.


I would suggest to reduce the juice as much es possible (to safe space later on in the freezer or shelf) and either

freeze it or
can it (see here and here for canning with a pressure cooker and here for canning with an oven)

Just putting the juice into the fridge is not sufficient. Neither just boiling the juice and filling it into a jar is sufficient because then you are not sterilizing the juice but only pasteurizing.


Marshmallows are full of sugar and often corn syrup, so they are going to be naturally hydrophylic.   If you coat them with powdered sugar, they will eventually absorb it as you have seen.

A better alternative, at least in terms of having them dry to the touch is corn starch (cornflower in the UK), or if they are comparable with the flavor, cocoa.

Of course, neither of these taste as good straight so they give a slight starchy or bitter impression when biting into the marshmallow.


Is it safe to cook pork chops that thawed on counter overnight?

No. It has been out in room temperature for far too long to be safe to eat. Pork chops will be completely defrosted after 2-3 hours, which means they have been in the 'danger zone' for 6-8 hours. If you are defrosting over night, I would recommend putting it in a bowl of water in the fridge.


What characterizes a soup that holds well in a buffet setting?

I was really hoping that someone still in professional food service would answer this, but they haven't, so here's my list of rules based on memory from when I was:
Soups that are no good for holding:

Egg-drop soups and seafood soups are risky because of rapid spoilage
Miso soup settles out
Soups that are thickened with a butter or heavy cream emulsion; these tend to separate after being heated for hours
Pasta, barley and rice soups are problematic because the grains both absorb liquid while sitting and sink to the bottom.
Bread-thickened soups tend to turn to porrige
gazpacho actually does not do well; even though it is cold, after a few hours out it can ferment unless you keep it well-chilled

Soups that are good for holding:

Just about any pureed vegetable soup
Cheese-and-emulsifier thickened soups, like broccoli-cheese soup, do well
Bean soups with a moderate amount of beans do well (thick bean soups tend to solidify though), like vegetable/lentil, or brunswick stew
Chicken/noodle soup is a good standby if the noodles are very small and less than the chicken (see above)|
Thin dal, like a classic South Indian sambar, is designed for long sitting
Tomato/vegetable soup
"Chowders", including corn chowder, hold well from a suspension/serving standpoint, but see above for the risks of holding seafood
Any clear broth, such as bone broth, consomme, pomegranate soup, etc.

That's all I have; hopefully someone with current buffet-running experience will speak up.


Using baking strips vs. submerging in a water bath

Cake tins aren't necessarily sealed. Springform tins in particular can leak in a water bath, leaving you with a boiled mess (foil can be used to cover the bottom, if it's big enough in a single sheet without tearing). Some other loose bottom tins can also leak even if well greased.

In addition to these leakage issues (thanks to @Spagirl in the comments) the baking strips are likely to dry out partway through cooking. This means that the outside of the cake reaches (almost) the temperature it would otherwise, but does so more slowly, i.e. at a more similar rate to the rest of the cake. This means it they should allow the expected crust to form (though it may be a little thinner or less brown). This crust is desirable for strength, especially if you plan on applying icing. A sponge (for example) cooked in a water bath has a much weaker crust the same colour as the interior.

All this is because the water, whether soaked into fabric or in a bath, can't get hotter than 100°C. The water bath is unlikely to boil dry in a sensible cooking time, but the fabric holds much less water. So if you want to avoid browning the water bath might work, but the cake will take a very long time to cook through as heat transfer from the base is also restricted. There will be a degree of steaming going on, much more so in the case of the water bath, but that's not necessarily a problem (sponge cooked on top of fruit steams more than that and is good).

By all means experiment, but be prepared for long cooking times and some possible failures (the exposed top could end up cooking very much faster than the rest, for example.


What is the difference between Orbit Gum and Orbit for Kids

I don't know of any reason to say it can't be asked here. Orbit for Kids is available in "kid friendly" flavors (Bubble Gum and Strawberry Banana). I see nothing at all different in the formulation beyond the flavor. For the most part it is a marketing gimmick. The "for kids" flavors have xylitol as the second ingredient. The adult flavors have it as a 3rd or 4th ingredient. That probably just means that the kid's version is somewhat sweeter.


If the dough is springing back, it's cause the gluten is still tight. Let it rest for 15-20 minutes, then try again.


How is UHT milk heated to a high temperature for only 1–2 seconds?

According to this product page from Machine Point:

  MachinePoint Food Technologies manufactures injection direct heating
  systems where high pressure steam is injected into pre-heated liquid
  by a steam injector leading to a rapid rise in temperature between 80
  and 145 ºC for 0,5 seconds. Following the product is flash-cooled in a
  vacuum to remove water equivalent to amount of condensed steam used,
  until we reach the 80ºC. Then temperature keep been reduced by a heat
  exchanger.

Physics is fun.

I suspect the various methods are proprietary, depending on what is being pasteurized, but for economy of scale, they are all going to involve a continuous process similar to the one described, where the product enters a heating phase, then very quickly moves into a cooling phase in the machine.

In these continuous types of processes, of course the product will move continuously through all temperatures, but it will do so very quickly.


Accidentally used high heat on Teflon pan!

Smoking oil generally isn't hot enough to damage teflon.  Generally, Teflon gets damaged at 260C/500F, which is above the smoke point of most cooking oils (though not all of them).  So as long as you didn't let it go to the point where you burned most of the oil off, it should be OK.


Will a pork shoulder be dry after 16 hours at 110C

Pork shoulder is extremely forgiving.

You are looking for an outcome, not a time, and not an absolute temperature.  Cook it until it is tender, which indicates the collagen is sufficiently converted to gelatin.  That may or may not have happened at a particular temperature, because the conversion process is time dependent, and the rate is temperature sensitive.

Meathead describes testing for this in his comprehensive recipe for smoking pork shoulders:

  If there is a bone, use a glove or paper towel to protect your fingers
  and wiggle the bone. If it turns easily and comes out of the meat, the
  collagens have melted and you are done. If there is no bone, use the
  "stick a fork in it method". Insert a fork and try to rotate it 90
  degrees. If it turns with only a little torque, you're done. If it's
  not done, close the lid and go drink a mint julep for 30 minutes. If
  the internal temp hits 195°F but the meat is still not tender, push on
  up to 203°F, my new favorite target.

See also:

Pork butt roast: slicing temp vs pulling temp
What makes a moist steak (or roast)? (which is not just about steak)


Ice-cream-on-a-stick in refrigerator temperature

I'd look at making a cheesecake on a stick.

It is stable at fridge and room temperature;


You need to ferment in a cool place, so you can only ferment pickles in the monsoon season when temperatures are down, or inside a house with A.C.

Vegetables turn soft if it's too hot. Taste and feel is important here. Soft vegetables are the biggest problem if it's too hot. On the 3rd day it is good to place in the fridge to slow the fermenting, if you can.

Crocks may be wrapped in burlap, palm  dry, & kept wet in a cool shade place with breeze. Cloudy days are a big help. Place a plate on top of crock to keep insects dirt out. So it can be done with care. I'm in the South Phillipines, and it seems to work on the shady side of the house under the second floor A.C., where dripwater hits a wrapped crock, along with the breeze in the monsoon season.


Anything stored in olive oil is subject to bacterial growth, even in the fridge. If it is in an air tight container, such as a mason jar, it should last about 1 week. :)


Working with chocolate is so tricky!

Introducing even a tiny amount of water to melted chocolate will cause it to seize. The water could come from unexpected places: steam from a double boiler, condensation on the interior of a lid, the use of a wet utensil. Seized chocolate can be returned to a smooth, melty texture, but it will no longer be suitable for coating. It can be put to other uses, though.

However, you may have overheated your chocolate, which will also cause it to seize - overheated chocolate can be saved, though. Blending overheated chocolate with solid chocolate, or pressing it through a sieve, may save it.


Cooking temperatures with non-stick cookwear

The temperature guidelines are for frying and can be completely ignored if boiling. Being full of water is a very effective way to limit the maximum temperature of a vessel. You'd avoid boiling dry in any container.

To be honest, the guidelines are essentially nonsense for any use. "Medium" varies too much between stoves and burners. For example with my large non stick pan, medium on the big burner would be only for very fast frying while medium on the middle size burner would be very gentle.


The popcorn's problem is effectively staling -- and a sufficient coating will help to prevent this problem.  You may need to add the caramel at a low enough viscosity to get a good coating on the kernels.  You can always give them a second coating, if necessary.

It's also worth nothing that many of the places that sell packaged pre-popped popcorn tend to use 'mushroom' style popcorn.  I assume it's so that there's less breakage of the popcorn during transport, but it's also possible that there are other reasons (eg, slower staling due to reduced surface to air ratio).


Can I eat white vinegar if it has tons of deposits in it?

There are unfiltered vinegars on the market that come with a lot of solids, and it's perfectly normal for those to have all kinds of chunky weirdness if they've sat for a little while.

Wine vinegar has a wide range of normal behaviour: it can get cloudy* or develop sediment, and that's normal. Even filtered vinegar can develop cloudiness and still be perfectly safe.

If your distilled vinegar gets cloudy, I'd worry. That shouldn't happen. Still, foreign bacteria do NOT grow well in vinegar. If your distilled vinegar is growing something, you probably know why.

Commercially produced vinegar very seldom goes bad, unless you're storing it outside on your deck, or something. If you brew your own, your mileage may vary.

*This is often a result of leaving live bacteria ("The Mother") in the vinegar. Some people think this makes it better, like live yoghurt cultures. There isn't much data either way, but it's certainly not harmful.


Where did the apples in Japanese Curry come from?

Curry and apples were both introduced to Japan in the late 19th century. Curry did not receive widespread popularity until the beginning of the 20th century and apples were not introduced to the curry rue until the 1960s (When the sweeter honey and apple curries increased their popularity with children). In 1963 House Foods Corp introduced House Vermont Curry made with honey and apples.
https://gogocurryfranchise.com/the-evolution-and-spread-of-japanese-curry-rice/


To thicken anything 'like a bechamel sauce' you would use a roux.You could just add flour to the cream, or any other liquid, but it should be added to a small amount of the liquid and form it into paste. Then return the 'paste' to the rest of the liquid and heat until thickened (it will have to boil).

A roux, however,  is a richer base for a sauce. Start with  equal amounts of a fat (butter, olive oil, sausage drippings...) and flour. Get the fat hot and then whisk in the flour until it has absorbed all of the fat into the flour. Then add your cream and heat, still whisking, until thickened.

If this is not what you are after, please be more specific. Perhaps describe what your end goal is. This can be used to create anything from sawmill gravy to nacho cheese sauce, depending on what you add to the cream or milk afterwards.


A strange problem with BWT Initium 2.5 l filter's scale

Reply just received from pot's producer. In case someone would be interested about "the magic":

The scale with 2,5l just applies to the empty jug without funnel and cartridge. So the funnel with cartridge inside displaces the water in the jug. I just tried this out with my own Initium jug.
If you fill in 1000ml it´s the same amount of water, but it will be e little bit more at the scale.
I know, this is a little bit confusing, because the measurement can be read as the amount of filtered water. I´m very sorry for that. But I guess this explains the “magic” in this case.


Is raffinose broken down into its component sugars when cooked?

For a few years between around 2004 and 2007, a number of Korean and Japanese companies started started emphasizing products sweetened with various industrially isolated oligosaccharides, which is the family of sugars that raffinose belongs to. I believe the sources commonly extracted from included soybeans and other beans, based on the information from Chinese, Korean and Japanese manufacturers I was in contact with at the time. I even ran into one Korean beverage producer that went so far as to switch from sucrose to oligosaccharides in all of their products, although I recently spotted their products at Trader Joe's and that made me realize they've since either liberalized or backtracked on that decision.

http://www.foodnavigator.com/Science-Nutrition/Novel-oligosaccharides-as-sweeteners-for-food-beverages (which has a couple of annoying interstitial and/or intrusive ads; I don't have any influence over their content, but my apologies nonetheless) seems to indicate that certain new commercially produced oligosaccharides are stable in a fairly narrow temperature and PH range, so I suspect the answer to your question is "it depends." Raffinose is apparently still a frequent subject of study, though it seems like the question you have should be reasonably well answered by now; I'm not a chemist, so I can't parse much from the research summaries I'm able to locate. But I suspect that whatever happened, the isolate oligosaccharide products turned out not to be a panacea, or at least the marketing story turned out to be inadequate to sufficiently drive sales.

http://www.jafra.gr.jp/eng/origo.html indicates that raffinose can be extracted from (some form of) beets for use as a sweetener.

In any event, there's a chance you may be able to find oligosaccharide syrup or maybe even a crystalline form if you look hard enough, and it appears, from what little I'm able to glean, that it's fairly stable, and probably not going to break down in cooking. But I suspect that, like most sugar substitutes, simply replacing your sugar consumption with an alternative sweetener won't bring about meaningful health benefits; nearly every "healthy" sweetener has some undesirable side effects when consumed in large quantities.

Personally, I have a strong bias against any attempt to treat food as some sort of medicine, and my experience is that food manufacturers have little interest in making you healthier (but they do have interest in profiting based on your motivation to be healthy), so I wouldn't put too much stock in the idea that oligosaccharides, or anything else, are a meaningfully healthier alternative to sucrose. There are probably better ways to improve your health than by relying on food technology, and consuming moderate amounts of sweeteners of any type is probably more beneficial than replacing heavy consumption of sucrose with heavy consumption of the alternative sweetener of the month. But there certainly have been efforts to commercialize oligosaccharides for the health food market, and it's probable that there's at least some data to support the notion that oligosaccharides have some health benefits of some kind.


How to get spicey flavour from black peppers in stew?

For the most pronounced pepper flavor, you would want to grind and add at service.  As you cook black pepper bitter notes come out.  Some people like that black pepper bitterness, but last minute addition is what will get you the flavor and aroma of black pepper.


Exactly how much is "one glass", in Russian recipes?

Hello dennismv and welcome to Seasoned Advice! This  page  gives information and history on the faceted glass, so popular in Russia.

From what I could glean from other sites your measurements are correct. For use in recipes you would fill to the top of the facets or, as you say, the natural edge. This would be 200 ml.

**EDIT

Update -- The recipe below, found  here , translates 1 glāze (glass) to 1 cup. I found the same to be true in many other recipes.

Archive for the ‘Recipes’ Category

  Gingerbread
  December 5, 2011

  en/cz/est/lat

  2 eggs/vajíčka/muna/jajka/olas
  3 cups flour/ šálky mouky/ klaasi jahu / kubki maki / glāzes miltu
  2 cups of sugar/ šálky cukru/ klaasi suhkrut / szklanki cukru / glāzes cukura
  Baking powder – 1. Teaspoon / prášek na pečení – jedna lžíce/ 1 tl küpsetuspulbrit / lyzeczka proszku do pieczenia / tējkarote cepamā pulvera
  2 spoons of cocoa / lžíce kakaa / 2 spl kakaod / lyzki kakao / karotes kakao
  1 cup of milk/ šálky mléka /klaas piima / szklanka mleka / glāze piena
  1 cup of oil / šálky oleje / klaas õli / szklanka oleju / glāze ellas
  2 spoons of Jam / lžíce jamu / stl moosi / lyzki dzemu / karote ievārijums
  1 tea spoon of honey / lžíce medu / stl mett / lyzeczka miodu / karote medus
  Gingerbread spicies / perníkové koření /piparkoogi maitseained / przyprawy korzenne / piparkūku garšvielas ( kanēlis)


Is it necessary to store purchased sealed Coffee powder in freezer? Why?

It is NOT necessary to store coffee in the freezer.

It can be helpful if you want to store it for long periods - i.e. months.

Ground coffee should NOT be thawed and re-frozen, nor opened frequently and put-back in the freezer. Think of your freezer as long-term storage, and take out a week's worth of coffee at a time.

Also, it's not going to make a huge difference either way - if you want better tasting coffee the best bang-for-buck would be buying whole-bean coffee and grinding it as you need it.

Here's an obsessively detailed taste-testing account:

http://www.home-barista.com/store-coffee-in-freezer-conclusions.html


This is not simply about water or liquid covering the veg, but brine (salted liquid) covering the veg.  The brine is necessary for fermentation and safety. I would worry that your rinse and soak steps washed away too much salt. There is no way to know for sure from your description.  When I make kimchi, I salt the cabbage, and leave in a colander overnight for excess moisture to drain.  Then without rinsing, I proceed with the rest of the ingredients. I pack into a container.  There is typically enough brine to keep the ingredients in liquid for the fermentation to proceed safely.  If you have kept yours refrigerated, eat it. If it has been at room temp, with low to no salt, I would be concerned.


I wouldn't eat it as leaving it raw with such a weak pickling solutiong for multiple days is somewhat risky. A general rule for pickling solution should be 1:1 water to vinegar, and if your fish still seems completely raw the acid was not strong enough to denature any proteins on its own so I wouldn't trust its germ killing potential.


Red potatoes-partial cooking, freezing to bake at a later date

They're not going to brown in the freezer. All you have to do is make sure they're not browned before you put them in, and that you cook them reasonably promptly when you take them out.

So if you're shredding a lot, hold them in water til you're ready to cook them. After cooking, rinse to cool them, drain them well and pat them dry before freezing.


What is soy chicken and how is it prepared?

Soy chicken is usually available at Asian grocery stores that cater to an East Asian demographic. It is normally sold as "soy ham" or "veggie ham", with "chicken" as one of the varieties available. It's usually in a sort of log shape and you just cut it to whatever size you need.  It is technically already cooked, but many recipes will call for it to be coated and baked, etc.


How long does it take a hot oven to become cold

It depends on what temperature is "cold", is it room temperature ?

it also depends how well insulated is your oven and/or if you keep the door open to let the hot air out quickly.


Milk pasteurization in the bottle via water bath: fridge live?

You're in luck!

High-temperature short-time (HTST) pasteurisation for milk can be done at 71.5 °C (160.7 °F) for 15 seconds and extends milk's shelf life to about 2 weeks.  So if you can get a thermometer you don't need to wait for milk to bubble.

It's also possible to use a sous vide method; according to this guide 65°C for 30 minutes. Again, it's very important all the milk reaches this temperature and stays constant during the process. In this case the lower temperature is possible because the exposure time is longer. After 30 minutes, cool it as quickly as possible to 4°C.

To extend the shelf life to ~3 months you need ultra-high-temperature (UHT) pasteurisation (135 °C (275 °F) for 1–2 seconds) but that might be more difficult to control; you need to make sure that all the milk reached the temperature and stay there for that amount of time. I'm not sure this process is possible with home equipment.

Make sure to sterilise your containers prior to adding the milk, to avoid other contaminants.


Applying USDA standards (which may or may not be the 'same' as elsewhere, but (IMHO) serve as a reasonable standard for "Safe") Hamburger must be cooked to an internal temperature of 160°F [71°C] in order to be 'Guaranteed Safe', which is typically defined as 'well done'.

On the other hand hamburger may be perfectly safe at medium rare to rare (120°F - 49°C) depending on how the beef was raised and processed. Actual cases of serious food borne illness from even raw meat are fairly rare (or should I say uncommon? ;) ). As far as I can tell the French are doing nothing 'special' to neither decrease nor increase the risks involved.

Many restaurants (in the US) will specify on their menu some thing like:

  All burgers cooked med-well unless otherwise requested

A variety of circumstances from acid levels in the meat to the application of dyes may cause meat to appear 'pink' but be perfectly safe, ground beef may also appear to be brown, but may not be safe at all. Pink is not necessarily a good standard.

Since you are unlikely to get an 'accurate reading' carrying your own food thermometer with you where ever you may go (if your food sits on the counter for a while before getting served the temp by the time it gets to you will be less), the best test to apply in a restaurant is 'cooked' vs. 'raw'

A quick Google search "Hamburger Rare vs. Raw" will display a myriad of images from which you may discern what you are comfortable with.

  By 'serious' food borne illness I am referring to things which might
  require a doctors care or put your life in jeopardy. While lower-grade
  illness maybe 'unpleasant' they are not necessarily 'unsafe'

  "As far as I can tell" denotes the inability to prove a negative.
  Having looked through the Anses website, particularly their
  section on 'nutrivigilence' and 'animal nutrition and welfare' looking
  for any exceptional methods (radiation treatment, quarantines,
  chemical therapies etc) that might have the goal (even if not the
  effect) of making the beef supply more safe...I found nothing to cause
  me to believe that they are actually doing anything exceptional (over
  and above US or EU standards)


To make Gluten free pancakes, can I just substitute regular flour with Gluten free flour?

It depends on what you mean by gluten-free flour. If you are buying a gluten-free flour mix that it labeled for all-purpose use then you should be able to substitute that and get a reasonably good result. Substituting straight rice or almond flour in a standard recipe will not work well, because the mixes have a blend of ingredients designed to make it perform similar to flour.

It may take some recipe/flour experimentation to get it as close to what you are used to, but will definetly make something edible. There are also various almond-flour based pancake recipes which work well.


The ratio of egg/cornstarch to milk essentially controls the thickness of your end product more egg and it ends up like a custard, more cornstarch and you end up with a pastry cream.

You could swap out egg/cornstarch for gelatin?

With just yolk you add a richness to the pudding same with the butter.

With the milk you could swap it out for almond milk, coconut milk, kahlua ...

I'd also suggest a little salt to enhance flavor and maybe a splash of vanilla...

I'd also look into mousse, custard, Bavarian Cream all essentially have the same ingredients but with slightly different outcome.

That should keep yeh busy for awhile :P


How about fresh fruit with muesli/granola (which contains nuts and seeds) and yogurt (either dairy or soy)? That's my daily breakfast.

For example, this fruit, nuts & seeds muesli by Dorset Cereals (which used to be my favorite kind until I started making it myself) contains about 7g protein per portion (70g), and my favorite soy yogurt contains 5g of protein per portion (125g). Together they contain as much protein as 2 large eggs, and it's less of a hassle to prepare.


Then I began to slowly add chicken stock.

There's your problem: slowly. When you add the stock to the roux, an irreversible chemical reaction starts, where the starches from the roux bind to the fluid and gelatinize. After they have gelatinized, they cannot soak up any more fluid. So when you add a small amount of stock and stir it all in, all the starch gets used up, creating a very dense mass. Adding more stock and thinking that it will get absorbed is like pouring juice over jell-o and thinking that you'll get a thinner jell-o.

I know it is counterintuitive - I've done it the wrong way for years and my success rate for bechamel was not much more than 30%. But you just have to get your stock very quickly into the roux, as the reaction is over in maybe 30 seconds. The risk of getting clumps is high, but the sauce isn't completely ruined the way it is when making it too slowly. I even tend to dump the whole stock into the roux in a single pour.

There are quite a few things you can do to reduce the clumps probability, even when going the all-at-once route.

First, make a smaller quantity. If necessary, work in batches. Quickly combining 500 ml milk with the appropriate amount of roux is much easier than doing it for the 1.5 liters you need for the big lasagne dish. Less than 500 ml is even easier.

Second, whisk vigorously all the time while combining. When making a small batch (see above), it is easy to hold a small container with the stock with one hand only and pour from it, while whisking with the other. Pouring some stock with two hands, then picking up a whisk and stirring it in, then pouring some more is a recipe for disaster. It is even better if you don't use a whisk, but a handheld mixer (don't do this in a nonstick pan, even if it is touted as metal utensils safe. If you do it in an enamelled pan, you can get visible lines from the attachments. These are a purely aesthetic problem, but you might want to avoid them nevertheless).

Third, use a high, narrow pan. Your whisking/mixer is only doing some good in the vicinity of the whisk, while the roux in some distance doesn't get mixed with the stock quickly enough.

Fourth (or maybe zeroth, because it is very important), a roux has a very small error margin. Always measure your ingredients exactly, preferably by weight. If using boiling stock, don't let the measured stock boil on while you are preparing other things, as it will evaporate quite a bit.

Fifth, there is the temperature you already mentioned. You want the temperature difference to be as small as possible. Don't set your burner to a high temperature. If you need the hot temperature for a brown roux, err on the side of too cold until shortly before the color is achieved, then reduce the temperature, and wait for the residual heat of the pan to complete the coloring before combining. I prefer to combine on the burner using a boiling liquid, with a temperature difference of around 60°C or less, but have also used the "cold" method successfully: liquid at room temperature or somewhat warmed, but far from boiling, roux is removed from the burner for a minute. Combine away from burner until smooth, then put back on until it bubbles.

Sixth, if you get some clumps, you can save the sauce. If they are few and small (<3 mm in diameter), just stir vigorously until gone (remove the sauce from the burner after it bubbles, then continue stirring). Or use an immersion blender. If this doesn't get rid of them, use a sieve after the sauce is ready (not too fine a sieve, and certainly not a cheesecloth).

Seventh. I find that the lighter the roux, the more easier it is to work with. For bechamel, I often don't brown it at all, just wait until it is hot enough. You may want to perfect your technique with a light roux before starting with the dark ones.

Eighth. Even with a light roux, you will probably fail often the first few times. Roux sauces need exercise until you get them right. So some dry training may be a good idea. Use all-purpose flour, the cheapest oil you can find, and heated water, make some batches of roux and throw them out. The cost will be negligible, and the probability that you ruin the next batch when you are under time pressure and/or are using expensive ingredients (and they can get actually expensive - consider a veloute made with roasted argan oil for 11 Eur/100 ml) is much lower.


I use these and love them. They really do simplify storage since you can just use any drawer. If you ever needed to travel with your knives (I haven't) they are a great benefit there as well. It's also nice to have your knife in one of these if it's just sitting on your counter while you get everything in place. If you're clumsy and you knock this off the counter you'll only end up with a bruise instead of a trip to the hospital.

The only cons I've found are rather insignificant. You have to occasionally clean them, and you have to go through that one extra step to get to your knife.


What is apple cider?
In earlier times, it just meant "apple juice". Nobody had different words for the non-alcoholic and the alcoholic variety, because the freshly pressed (and sometimes cooked) juice fermented on its own when stored unrefrigerated.
In the days of refrigeration, there are different products made by pressing of apples, and stabilized to keep their properties when refrigerated. It just so happens that linguistically, the name "cider" has stuck for a non-fermented variant in the US and for a fermented variant outside. Besides, there are companies who have been using modern technology to approximate the fermented version without following the exact process, this is how products like the Apple bandit come into being. (There are also companies who approximate the non-alcoholic variety, but I think they market it simply as apple juice).
So the word has no single "exact" meaning. All three types are a cider.
Which one is better to use?
The answer may sound disappointing, but it is best to use the type meant by the recipe author. Ideally, the author would have known of the linguistic problem, and specified what they mean. Since the ideal case rarely happens in reality, you have to take your best guess based on what you know of the recipe source. That is, if it is an American recipe, use unfiltered apple juice, if it is European, use the alcoholic kind. Also, especially for older recipes, or ones which require much manipulation (such as your reducing step), it is preferable to use traditional-process cider. The modern style cider  like Apple bandit is fine-tuned to taste good when drunk straight from the bottle, but it might behave very different from old time cider when heated.
In the end, if you have no idea where the recipe came from or who the author is, you can just start with whichever type is easiest for you to use, and see if you like the result. If yes, stay with it. If not, try with a different type.


Prevent brioche buns from spreading during rise

If you had the same problem with different recipes, it's probably caused by technique. The key to round buns is surface tension. If the skin is taut, the expanding gas will cause the bun to expand like a balloon instead of "flowing" sideways.

When shaping your buns, make sure you create tension by either repeatedly folding the outer edge inwards or by using a rotating movement with a cupped hand - the base of your thumb and your pinky press lightly onto the dough ball while swirling it around. Do not use much flour (if any at all), because the dough should stick ever so slightly to the work surface. If you turn the now round bun over, you should ideally see a "spiral" on the bottom and the skin of the bun is pretty tight:

A video incuding slow-motion can be found here, for example.

If you find this too complicated, use your standard "fold under" method and repeat until the skin is taut.


What types of rice are appropriate to use in a rice cooker?

In my experience, rice quality has a pretty substantial amount of variation, but the cooking device has little to do with it.

While I'm sure that most rice cookers on the market from Japanese firms are optimized and tested for short-grain, japonica rice, I've never had issues cooking basmati or jasmine rice in one, and I've even used them for farro and mixed grains.

I doubt that the rice cooker has much to do with it. I've made rice in heavy cast-iron enamelware on the stove, in a cheap Southeast Asian electric steamer without any fancy "fuzzy logic" electronics, in a fuzzy logic rice cooker, and an mid-range IH rice cooker, which is what we use at home now, and the quality of the rice and its age has a greater impact than the cooking method. I would say that the IH rice cooker produces superior results over our old fuzzy logic cooker, but it's certainly not an order-of-magnitude kind of difference.

Assuming you're located in the US, my benchmark go-to rice brand is "Tamaki Gold", which is from a japonica strain called koshihikari, and I think most of this brand's rice is grown near Sacramento, CA. It's more expensive than the typical Botan or Niko Niko brand calrose rice that's ubiquitious in Japanese supermarkets, but I find the quality far superior, and it's still a good value. My wife tends not to appreciate the Niko Niko or Botan calrose rice very much at all, so we don't eat it at home, but probably 80% of Japanese restaurants in the US are using it or a similar product.

Generally, I'd recommend staying away from the absolute cheapest brands, and choose something that's a couple of notches above. We've used imported rice from Akita or wherever and gotten very nice results, but the differences were far subtler than the price (on the order of $10 vs. $35 for a similar quantity). The sweet spot for quality is near the median price, assuming you're in a shop that offers a wide variety of options.

Edit: Sorry, until your edit, I didn't realize you were working from parboiled or converted rice, I assumed raw rice, as I've never heard of anyone cooking the quick cooking rice products in a rice cooker. (Rice cookers often have their own "quick mode" which shortens cooking time with normal raw rice at the cost of a slightly reduced textural quality). Considering that's what you were starting from, consider using other supermarket brands of rice that meet your target grain size and stickiness/fluffiness, but aren't marketed for speed or convenience.


how can I get guar gum to smoothly blend in juice?

The lumps of gum in products are known as "fish-eyes". Unless you get pre-hydrated gum, the best way to avoid them is to mix it in a blender (and a pretty powerful one at that). Sometimes pre-hydrated gum will mix in more smoothly and with fewer lumps, but you'd still need to blend it. Another option that may not be practical in your case is to disperse the powdered gum in another powder, like sugar, and then mix the blend in.

Here are a couple of sets of instructions on mixing gums.


As suggested by OP in a comment, it is likely that a milky, creamy broth is the result of fat emulsifying into the broth due to too-violently boiling the broth. For context: when making a Tonkotsu ramen broth, this style of milky broth (typically made with pork rather than beef bones) is often the desired result, hence you'll find recipes calling for a sustained rolling boil for hours (whereas traditional French stocks would be kept at a simmer), or even suggestions to blend up your broth.

Thus, the answer to this question would be to cook the broth at a simmer, rather than a rolling boil.


How can I restore and keep a built-in cutting board in good condition?

I wouldn't use that board any further. Some of those gaps where the block laminate is separating go right the way through. I don't see how you could realistically sanitise it, even if the other side looks a bit better.
Not only would I replace it, I'd also seriously consider replacing the counter top. The chipboard is swollen due to repeated wetting & is not going to be anything like hygienic any more. If you do consider only changing the chopping board, at least make sure the chipboard is properly sealed before you replace it, & consider mounting the new board with silicone sealant around the edges.
Perhaps this may not apply world-wide, but in the UK that style of square-edged countertop hasn't been in use for at least 30 years. Pretty much everything since then is bullnose or semi-bullnose (half-round or quarter-round) - meaning there is no separate mica piece on the front edge, it's all made in one continuous, watertight, piece.
In consequence that chipboard could have more than 30 years of contamination in it.


What are the benefits and drawbacks of washing dishes in hot water?

Before we proceed, we should note that not all dirty dishes are created equal. There are a few "groups" with different chemical and physical properties.

Sugar
Probably the easiest of all as it will happily dissolve in water. A bit quicker in warm or hot water than in cold water (iced tea, anyone?), but not adverse to being washed off. We can probably ignore it for our further discussion.
Starch, uncooked
Pure starch will easily dissolve in cold water, but tends to form lumps in hot water as anyone trying to thicken a soup or sauce can attest. This means all starchy dishes, from your bread bowl to the spoon in your bag of flour needs to be rinsed cold (first) or you will end up with a glue-like substance clinging to your dishes, your rag, your brush, whatever. You need to create a suspension, that is tiny particles floating in your water instead of a sticky goo.
Proteins, unheated
Unheated, that means uncoagulated proteins, like the yolks in your breakfast egg or that cup with fat-free milk, even the cutting board of your meat are comparatively easy to dissolve in cool-to-lukewarm water - everything below their specific temperature at which they denaturize. This does not mean that they are clean after that because there are:
Fats
This is the one group that really, really needs some solvent, aka dishwashing liquid for simple chemical reasons: Fats are hydrophobic, they do not mix with water. Your soap binds with the fat molecules forming larger molecules, that are then soluble in water. Hotter water speeds up this process, similar to sugar dissolving faster in hot water. Plus food fats that are solid at room temperature turn liquid when warmed which helps the soap to "get" the fat molecules. No need to boil your hands, though.

Now unless you serve a very restricted breakfast, your dishes will likely contain something of each group above, so you need an adjusted approach:

Those dishes that have starchy and protein-rich components may benefit from a cool rinse first. Then your dishes can go in the sink with quite warm water - hotter speeds up the "loosening" of fats and other crusts, but you need not "boil" your hands, gloved or not.

Yet we still have to consider our nasty hitchhikers:

Bacteria and their ilk
Let's get one misconception out of the way first: Washing dishes, whether by hand or in a dishwasher, does not remove all bacteria. You can scrub and sanitize to your heart's content, your kitchen will never be truly sterile. And it doesn't have to. The human body deals well with some "intruders" on average, they can even be beneficial.
What we want to do is to reduce the total amount of bacteria present and, if possible, eliminate those that are highly pathogenic. (Don't lick that raw chicken...!)
Unfortunately, the suggestion of washing your dishes with really hot water to kill them is impractical at best - Salmonella dies at about 70C / 155 F1, similar rules apply for Listeria.
Bacteria doesn't come alone, it is on and in the food. So cleaning the dishes well and removing all residue will in fact rinse the bacteria right off and leave the very few that still might cling to a plate without food, causing many of them to die. Much more critical is the great bacterial breeding ground near your sink: Sponges and rags may contain far more pathogens than a random plate - your food is typically not contaminated to the hilt from the start. So make sure you rinse your dishes well after washing, consider air-drying or at least use a fresh towel.

1 To be precise, it's a function over time and temperature, but that doesn't make much of a difference here.


As several comments have said already: halving a recipe generally doesn't affect the cooking time very much. Depending on the recipe you may have to keep an eye to ensure that the increased surface area (relative to volume) doesn't cause it to evaporate too quickly or develop too much crust, but for the most part the time it takes to make something hot and allow chemical reactions to occur is about the same regardless of volume.

You're probably thinking of larger things like roasts and whole birds, where there is a minutes-per-pound estimate in cooking. That's a matter of radius, where you're just trying to get the thing to heat all the way through. Even there, minutes-per-pound is not a very good estimate.

For a casserole, braise, etc., it will reach temperature fairly quickly, and you're waiting for chemical reactions to occur (collagen gelatinizing, starches breaking down). That's the category your cassoulet fits in.


How long does an opened and unrefrigerated tub of yogurt last?

When you open a food product, you are exposing it to microbes in the air. The food is sealed in a sanitary environment and bacteria is kept out. Once you open the container of yogurt, those microbes begin working on the yogurt. Further, when you leave the yogurt at room temperature the bacteria can rapidly multiply as the yogurt is in the danger zone between 40 F and 140 F. At temperatures in this range, any yogurt exposed to bacteria in the air will become rancid rather quickly.


Does sugar turn sour after prolonged cooking?

No, sugar will never turn sour after long cooking, no matter how long you cook it. This must be some myth.

If you take your sugar beyond caramel and into a burned stage, it can become acrid with a faintly sour taste. But this cannot happen as long as there is any moisture in your food. The whole content of the pot will have to be a single black lump of charcoal before this occurs. It is not possible for the dissolved sugar in the soup to burn to this stage.

Peter Taylor's suggestion is interesting. In any fermentation process, sugar will be turned into acid. But cooking temperatures are way too high for a fermentation. You'd have to keep the food for hours below 45 Celsius to sustain a bacterial or yeast colony; it would flourish at even lower temperatures, around 37 Celsius, giving you obvious fermentation effects. This is a temperature which many people would find not hot enough for a bathtub, less alone to cook a soup. If the myth was born from this effect, it must come from a tradition in which the beans were soaked in warm water for hours, then cooked for a shorter time at higher temperatures, instead of being cooked all the time.

There are other ingredients which should be added at the end, for example fresh herbs. They are likely to lose their flavor, not turn sour or something else. But this doesn't apply to sugar, which has no aroma to speak of.

Sugar also doesn't get inverted by cooking. It stays as a single molecule (sucrose) until it starts reacting into more exotic stuff, undergoing complicated irreversible chemical reactions and turning into caramel. Inverting the sugar (= breaking it into glucose and fructose) is possible, but cannot be done by temperature, it needs acid or seeding. Even if you were to invert some sugar with acid, it would 1) happen almost instantly, and 2) any sour taste will be due to the acid you used. Glucose and fructose are both sweet and not sour at all. So, if your sugar is getting inverted in the soup (which will happen if you are already using other sour ingredients - but I can't imagine why you'd do it if you want to avoid a sour taste) it is not making it sour.

So, I can't know what associations created this sugar-turns-sour myth, but it isn't true.


Enlarging from a home bakery to a commercial bakery

Much would depend on exactly what ovens you are either getting for the new location or that come with the new location. The particular commercial natural gas convection ovens I get to play with sometimes have blowers that can be high, low or off - but you risk more unevenness than a home oven if the blowers are off.

Mostly you need to experiment. Initially probably with less than a full batch, and then with a batch that fills the new oven(s) or is as large as you anticipate making in the new kitchen.

For bread, I find that the CNGCO's (as expected) cook quite a bit faster than my home non-convection oven at the same temperature. You may need to adjust both temperature and time to get similar results in new equipment. If you have 3 ovens in the new space, you will probably find that each one is somewhat different that the others, even if all three are the same make and model. (Edit, Add:) While I have never baked cheesecake in those ovens, it occurs to me that the regular kitchen staff (which I am not) do that with some regularity. I happen to be more prone to making yeast bread...

Don't expect to move in and start churning out perfection right away - it would be lovely if it happens that way, but surprising.


Here is a pretty good looking description:
http://www.twirlandtaste.com/2012/07/crispy-green-bean-chips-la-low-carb.html
They suggest the following procedure:

Wash the fresh, small green beans in cold water.
Cut off and tough ends.
Steam blanches the beans by placing a few inches of water in the bottom of a pot and bringing to a boil. Make sure the water is not high enough to get inside the steamer pan. Place beans in steamer pan or wire basket and steam for three to four minutes.
Remove beans from steamer and plunge into cold or ice water for five minutes to stop the cooking process. Drain beans with strainer.
Place green beans on a cookie sheet in single layer. Freeze for 45 minutes.
Cook in the oven on the cookie sheet at 140 degrees until the beans are crisp and all moisture has been removed. Cooking times vary and may take 8 -14 hours.
If using a food dehydrator, place beans on dehydrator tray and cook at 135 degrees Fahrenheit for 8 -12 hours until crisp.


Two sprigs of thyme will yield perhaps a tablespoon of leaves when stripped from the stem, depending on the size of the sprigs.

Using the typical ratio of 1/3 unit dried to substitute for 1 unit of fresh herbs, you would then want about a teaspoon for dried thyme.

Thyme--or herbs and sprices in general--usually does not contribute to the chemistry of a recipe, just to its flavor profile, so you can adjust the amount as you desire to match your personal preference.

You also want to consider how the thyme is used in the recipe.  If it is in a bouquet garni, it would eventually be removed from the sauce or stock or other food product.  If the appearance is critical, you might not want the flecks of thyme in the dish, so you might want to use a spice ball (I would just accept the flecks, as I personally don't even own a spice ball).


Ive had that before. Use a chinore to get a finer strain.


My cake crumbled on the top and took very long time to cook

Brown sugar contains molasses, which is acidic, and probably threw off the acid-base balance in the cake. It also contains more water than white sugar, but neither contain much, so that probably didn't matter.

Did the cake rise as expected? I'm guessing “no”, which is probably what changed the baking time.

Quickly looking it up, between ¼ tsp and ½ tsp of baking soda would neutralize the brown sugar, if you feel like trying again.

Other possibilities:

your baking powder or soda is too old; how long ago was the last cake? Baking powder especially has a limited shelf-life.
mistakes (oven temperature set wrong, measured wrong)


Does an avocado seed help guacamole stay green?

You're correct - it's a myth, as is adding something acidic to it like lemon juice--see explanation here. As you said, what causes it to brown is the oxidation, and that's just exposure to the air. If you wrap a cut avocado (or guacamole) in plastic wrap so there's no air space between the wrap and the avocado, then it will stay green longer than areas where air is getting to it.


Do grains sold as animal feed meet the safety standards for human food?

What is animal feed in one country is human food in another (E.g. "Polenta") but that's just one example, so:

Is all animal feed safe to eat raw? Definitely not!
Is all animal feed safe to eat cooked? Definitely not!
Is some animal feed safe to eat raw? Probably not!
Is most animal feed safe to eat cooked? Probably yes.
Is it legal to serve this food to other people? No in most countries, including Germany

However, that is just some and most and probably and the quality control between  maize for animal consumption and maize used for human consumption is different, so the quality of the food you'll be cooking out of chicken feed will be much lower than the one rated for human consumption.

I mean: I once made a stew out of dog food by adding pepper, allspice, nutmeg and some nice dark monk beer, but that was a drunken bet and the two other drunks absolutely loved it the night itself until we realised the next day it was mostly horse meat...


How does lentils' nutritional profile change in germinating lentils in water?

I do not have any information on the change itself, but neither does that claim in Wikipedia.

However, I would refer you to the discussion page of lentil's and read over the community's discussion regarding the article's nutrition claims generally. They are not pleased with many of the claims, and have been active in moderating it. Also of note, the claim has no citation.

Upon my reading, I would not take for granted that the minor act of sprouting in water changes nutritional value substantially, especially as compared to deep-frying them or other processes.

That said, you might refer to the general sprouting article:

  These nutrients are essential for human health. To clarify, the nutritional changes upon germination & sprouting have been summarized below. Chavan and Kadam (1989) concluded that - “The desirable nutritional changes that occur during sprouting are mainly due to the breakdown of complex compounds into a more simple form, transformation into essential constituents and breakdown of nutritionally undesirable constituents.”

It goes on to explain that, according to studies done by Chavan & Kadam (1989), Cuddeford (1989) and Shippard (2005), changes during the sprouting process result in:

Increases in protein quality
Increases in crude fiber content
Increases in essential fatty acids
Increases in vitamin content

The article cites a claim from the Shipard (2005) study: "“When seeds are sprouted, minerals chelate or merge with protein, in a way that increases their function.”


It would appear similar to what in the US is commonly called a "breakfast skillet", such as this recipe for one.

The 'skillet' comes from the pan that it's usually served in at restaurants (cast iron or some equivalent), and it generally consists of a meat such as bacon or sausage, usually a form of potato ('home fries' or hash browns are common, or they could just be cubed), eggs on top cooked to your specification (over easy, scrambled, etc), and often some kind of cheese.

Restaurants that serve such dishes here usually have fun or regional names added to describe the contents of the 'skillet', such as "American", Denver, Southwest, and others - but they all follow a similar trend.

The only main difference I can see is the form of potatoes seem to be julienne, or as they'd usually be called here, "french fries". This would be less common in the US, but many would embrace it as a great idea - just don't expect to find it on every menu.


Israeli restaurant-style falafel and hummus, how do to make?

(yes, I know, I cheat by posting a non-answer)

I don't think that there can be a real answer to that question.

There must be dozens of "authentic" recipes for Falafel and hummus; and I am not talking about westernized variation of the recipe.

In the case of the hummus, maybe the chickpeas are fresh or dry, maybe the olive oil is different (generic vs. cold presse), maybe the lemon is more or less sweet, maybe the tahini is home made versus store bought.

Maybe the mix was blended to a smooth texture or just enough to have chunks in it, maybe it was hand crushed in a mortar?

You see there can be a lot of variation, not just on the recipe, but on the ingredients themselves.

If you want to make hummus and falafel at home, you will need to find a recipe (or, 2, 3 more) that appeals to you, and experiment with it by add more or less of that, or more or less of that other thing so you can discover the recipe that you really like.


Your question isn't as clear as it could be, but I'll try to answer what I think you're asking. You've bought a container specifically for making bread dough in and you have questions about it, right?

You asked if you should put your dough in the fridge right after making it. The answer is, it depends on what you're making. You can make bread where the bread never sees the inside of the refrigerator. What happens in this process is you're mixing together flour and water for your bread. The way you get your rise is with yeast. Yeast is a living organism. It feeds off of the bread dough and creates gases. These are trapped in the dough, creating small pockets which you see as rise.

There are different ways to achieve this. You have sourdough where you keep a single strain of yeast alive indefinitely. You leave these out on the counter when you're staring them or reviving them to make bread. However, you can store them in the refrigerator to retard their growth. Otherwise, you'd have to add new dough/feed every day. The other way is to add instant or active yeast, which come in a convenient package. These all work the same way, it's just about storage, speed, or flavor as to which you choose to use.

There are two reasons you could put your dough in the refrigerator. One is to slow the yeasts activity and cause a slower rise. It could be because of timing or it could be because of flavor. I have a pizza dough recipe and because of the families work schedule, I have to make the dough and leave it in the fridge for almost 24hrs, instead of the 4-6hrs it calls for. I've had the chance to make it both ways. When I stick it in the fridge for a few hours, it's a really good crust. However, when I leave it in for 24hrs, it has a sour quality reminiscent of sourdough. That's because as yeast uses up it's food source, it begins to produce alcohol. This is fermenting, similar to when making beer or wine. In those cases also, yeast feed on the sugars in the mash and turn it into alcohol.

So it's up to you and your recipe as to how long to refrigerate if at all. As for wrapping it, you should cover the dough whether you put it in the fridge or not. The reason is simply because you don't want it to dry out. You can either use a damp towel, saran wrap, the lid for the container (loose, not snapped on tight), or anything else you could use in the same way.

Just an FYI, as I mentioned in the previous paragraph, you shouldn't put anything tight fitting on your container and you should have a container at least twice the volume as your dough. You can eyeball that. The reason is that your dough will expand (rise) and if your container isn't big enough, you're going to end up with a sticky mess all over the place. I think you could imagine what would happen if you had a tight fitting or even a locked on lid on your container and the pressure built up as the yeast turned the sugars into gases. You're not going to have a good time.

When you bring dough out of the fridge you want let it warm up a little. If you're making something like sourdough, then you want to bring it out a minimum of 12hrs ahead of time and feed it. You'll wait till it's doubling in size before using it. With other dough's, it might not be long of a wait at all. Your recipe should tell you and after you make a few breads, you'll get an idea of how long it needs to come out of the fridge before use.

I hope this answered all your questions or at least helped you narrow it down for your next question.


What are the effective ways to wrap a pita?

Pita bread is a small "pocket" bread, they are not really designed for rolling. You normally slice the pocket open, and just stuff it. Like this

Some bakeries make large or jumbo pita bread, that are generally not useful as pocket breads. These can be folded into a cone by taking the left and right sides and pulling together making a cone shape, then wrap in paper to hold it together as required

Also, you can get Lebanese style flat bread in large squares or circles. These are ideal for making wraps. Add filling in a line to one side of a square or in the middle of a circle. Then roll into a large burrito or Sushi like shape, wrap in paper if needed, slice as desired


What ingredient gives vlaamse mayonnaise that special kick?

Frietsaus is just a special mayonnaise

Commercially it is lower in fat than plain mayonnaise

It has oil, starch (replaces extra oil), whole egg yolk, whole mustard seed, sugar, distiled vinegar, and lemon juice

So the kick is just the extra acid (vinegar and lemon juice), the bite from the whole seed mustard, mixed into a lite sauce, not a heavy greasy mayo

BTW: VleminckX Sausmeesters is just a touristy thing, there are plenty of shops in Holland that serve great fries

Personally I think that potatoes from Europe are a bit plain compared to many other continents/countries. the best I have had are from Fiji, the warm humid conditions make excellent deep frying potatoes, and I suspect they lace the cooking oil with a little coconut oil too :-)


Normally, people associate slime with "inedible" because some bacterial colonies can build up slime on spoiled food. But there are plants which naturally produce slime, and it is as edible as any other part of the same plant. Slimes are most common in algae, but I have also seen them in other plants such as hyacinth greens, and scallions have it too, although in normally not that much. But if you mash a "dry" scallion or the greens of a typical yellow onion, they still feel slimy, while other alliums become slimy on cooking, for example leeks.

Physically, slime is just a special kind of gel. As long as it is not of bacterial origin, it is not a sign of spoilage, and it is highly improbable that a living green plant without signs of sickness will be full of colonies of spoilage bacteria. So, I would declare it good to eat.


How to avoid the potatoes from sticking to the pan while frying for french fries/finger chips?

It sounds to me like you just aren't leaving sufficient room in the pan - you're crowding it.

When you drop food into the fryer, in the first few seconds there should be enough heat to seal the outside - this is vital for anything battered, but still important for such as fries.

If your heat drops too far because the pan is too crowded, this won't happen. To make matters worse, as it all sits in a lump trying to regain temperature, the starches in the potatoes start to set, gluing the individual fries together & also to the pan.

If finances won't allow a double-size pan - non-stick shouldn't be necessary for a deep-fryer - then try frying in two or even three batches instead, which will allow you to keep the heat up & the fries separate. If they hit each other & the sides less, they'll stick less. Stirring shouldn't be quite so necessary either, if they have enough room to move, one or two gentle swirls during the cook should be plenty.


Re-use rice for multiple batches of horchata?

I just made horchata for the first time. It turned out great! The leftover ball of rice/almond goo looked perfect for a baked treat. I added a bit of flour, an egg and some baking powder and mixed it all together. I thought I was making cookies, but the texture was more like a bread dough. So, I buttered a baking sheet and spread the dough out. Turned out great! (I baked it at 325 for fifteen minutes). Now I think I'll spread something over the top and roll it up, or perhaps just cut it like a cookie bar. Anyway, it tastes great and the texture is so yummy!


Is it ok for a cast iron skillet to have small visible pores on their surface?

If the pan was cast in sand, and it looks like that one was, it's not unusual at all. As long as you have a good seasoning on it, I think it should be fine.


Anything that doesn't survive the 150° C oven is not going to survive a 1500° C blow torch.

Gelatin has a melting point of about 35° C, maximum. It is a thermoreversible reaction, unlike the coagulation of eggs, which is thermoirreversible. Eggs set well in an oven, which is why they are used in so many baking recipes; gelatin does not, which is why it is almost never used in baking recipes (except as a stabilizer for fillings after the baking process is done).

You are definitely barking up the wrong tree here. If your custard is melting as opposed to setting in the oven, then there is something seriously wrong with either your technique or your recipe. The addition of gelatin is unlikely to help and, as stated above, even if it does help the custard set firmer, it then essentially becomes a panna cotta and you will not be able to caramelize sugar on top of it.

Summary: Don't pursue this. Find out where/why your custards are going wrong, and fix it.


Cheese suggestions to replace melted Velveeta

If you want the smoothness of melted processed cheese, but not the extra trouble of making your own, you can use processed cheese in other flavors such as Swiss, sharp cheddar, extra sharp cheddar, and pepper jack. (Just to name a few.)

Another option is canned or jarred process cheeses in various flavors.

Lastly, and probably what I would use, are different varieties of very young, soft cheeses. They tend to melt well and if young enough, don't need any additional ingredients.

As an example, I make a mac and cheese with a very young Gouda. It is quite literally just the macaroni and cheese. The cheese is to die for creamy. On the rare occasion that I end up with a slightly more mature cheese, a tablespoon or so of cream is all it needs to get to that smooth, creamy point.


Rotis made at home don't have baking powder. I am sure the store bought ones use it to make the rotis extra soft and fluffy it is heats up.


I am a south Indian who use tamarind in my daily cooking. As previously answered a block of tamarind can be stored wrapped at room temperature. but anything processed like a paste or juice should be refrigerated after opening.


I need a good substitute for applesauce in a gumdrop recipe

When substituting applesauce for oil in baking, it is a 1:1 ratio. 1/4 cup applesauce for 1/4 cup oil (except for cookies).

The rationale behind using applesauce as an oil replacement is that applesauce is high in pectin, and pectin can form a film around individual grains of flour, just like oil does.

In general purée of any other high-pectin fruit should work such as banana. Basically fruit high in pectin and no watery.

As for what kind of oil, most cooking oils should work. I tend to use canola oil opposed to almond, grape or olive. The reason is the flavors of these oils, to me, tend to alter the flavor too much for my liking.


I'm assuming the shaped dough is either on a flat surface or in a bread pan of some sort?

In a pinch, the simplest thing is often an inverted large bowl or similar container.  That will prevent air circulation.  In general, dough is mostly covered during the final rise to prevent a "skin" forming if the outer layer of the dough dries out.  (A skin can be a hindrance to a complete rise and/or impede oven spring, not to mention potentially changing the texture of the final crust of the bread.)  With the combination of an egg wash (which already moistens the dough) and a bowl or other container inverted to prevent air circulation, that's probably enough to prevent the exterior from drying out too much.

If you're still concerned about keeping the exterior moist, the next level is to use a larger inverted bowl or container that's big enough to allow a small cup of hot water to sit beside the dough underneath it.  Unless it's a very long rise, the initial heat from the cup will humidify the air and prevent the surface of the dough from drying out.  (For longer rises or in a cold kitchen, you can refresh the cup with more hot water periodically.)  Another option I've heard that some people use is to put the dough and the hot cup of water in a microwave and shut the door.  The microwave isn't turned on; it's just used as a relatively small somewhat sealed area.  You don't usually need something perfectly sealed or that fits the dough precisely -- as long as you prevent a lot of air flow around the dough, it's often enough to prevent a skin from forming.

The cup of hot water step probably isn't necessary when using an egg wash, but it's a way to keep dough from drying out in general, simulating a "proofing box" as used by professional bakers.  (Professional proofing boxes usually have more precise temperature and humidity control, however.)  After doing these sorts of tricks for a couple years, I eventually cut the top flaps off a larger cardboard box, taped up the bottom to seal it, and used that as an inverted makeshift "proofing box" which was big enough for a few loaves.  You could also buy a larger plastic bin or something for this purpose.  If you do things like this often, it may become worthwhile to invest in a small electric proofing box that allows you to control temperature more precisely.  (I was given one as a gift one year, so that's what I now use for this purpose.)


Can sweetened condensed milk be substituted for whole milk and sugar?

There are recipes that specifically use condensed and or evaporated milk as a shortcut to making fudge. It's not just a drop in replacement, it's a whole change in method. Just do a search for "easy fudge recipe" on Google to get examples of these fudge recipes that use condensed milk.

To add my opinion however, the old fashioned cooking and churning method produces the best fudge, but the condensed milk method although isn't as good at least produces a more consistent result. I do the old fashioned method. It's worth the extra effort and the extra learning curve (to recognize when the fudge is about to setup).


Xanthan gum is a polysaccahride obtained through a fermentation process.  It is used to greatly reduce syneresis, stabilize emulsions, and to keep particles suspended in mixtures. It is "shear thinning", meaning that liquids with xanthan are viscous when at rest, but fluid when stirring. It has other culinary uses as well, but would be a good experiment your ketchup application.  You will want to add in a concentration of 0.7 - 1.5% of your total batch.  Be careful of using in a higher concentration, as xanthan can impart an undesirable, mucous-like texture if used too heavily.

Credit to Martin Lersch, and his terrific pdf called "Texture: A Hydrocolloid Recipe Collection."


Will frozen pearl onions caramelize as easily as fresh ones will?

I don't have any experience with frozen or canned pearl onions (I assume canned because of the mention of draining), but I regularly cut and freeze 10lbs of onions at a time for ease of use later in the week/month (more info on how/why here).

With these onions that I freeze myself, caramelization seems to be the same as it would be with fresh onions.  I haven't done anything special when caramelizing with them, and there's been no increase in necessary cooking time or decrease in flavor.

If you really wanted to be safe, you could probably drop them in boiling water for a minute or two (or defrost them on the counter for an hour), but with how long it's going to take to caramelize anyway, I would think this extra step is unnecessary.

Also: if you're going to take the time to caramelize, but you're short on time during the week after work/school/etc, I recommend making a huge batch and then freezing the resulting caramelized onions as well.  Very handy!


Can arabic gum substitute for fat in making ice cream from homogenized 3% fat (low fat) milk

I don't think I've tried this in ice cream, but a trick I picked up for sorbets (via looking at commercial product ingredient lists - often boring and full of things you can't get at home, but sometimes there's a useful nugget hiding in there) was to add pectin - the "regular" stuff, not the pink "low sugar" stuff (misleading - it's for "low sugar" canning, so it's mostly dextrose, or corn sugar - regular pectin is mostly pectin.) I'll use a tablespoon/15 ml for a 1.5 - 2 pint batch, and 3 Tablespoons/45 ml for a gallon batch (3 quarts liquid before freezing.)

Regular pectin mixes in quite nicely. The low sugar stuff is highly annoying (got a box by accident once - won't make that mistake again.)

I don't know if there's any compatibility issue with dairy (or not), I simply have never even thought to try it other than with sorbets/popsicles that are non-dairy. A quick look shows people using it to stiffen yogurt that isn't making it on it's own, so I think you'd be good there. For that matter, some lowfat/nonfat yogurt might also be a good ingredient for your lowfat ice "cream" attempts.


As a rule of thumb for a whole fish, and not a fillet -

the gills should be bright red
the skin/scales should be bright and shiny like metal
this fish shouldn't really smell of anything except 'watery'
the flesh should rebound quickly when pressed
the eyes should be bright and clear
really fresh fish is also quite slimey to touch if it's straight out of the water. I remember being quite surprised at this from my first fishing trip a few years back.


Storing sourdough starters with wine in a wine fridge?

My starter is going on 6+ years old now.  I keep it in the fridge in a covered container.  Of course, it would be slightly warmer in a wine fridge, but I would also recommend a covered container in that situation too.  There will be a little activity, but not enough for gas to escape.  In this scenario, I remove a portion of the starter, add new flour and water, and return to the fridge approximately weekly.  I have gone much longer between feedings with no harm...as long as I give it plenty of time to build up before use (at least a day on the counter...sometimes two if I've forgotten about it in the back of the fridge).  In any case, it will not impact your wine.


Does honey always have to be heated in order to liquefy it for bottling?

Knowing small-scale beekeepers personally, I can confirm that fresh honey straight from the combs is liquid(-ish) and can be put into jars directly.

I have seen (and participated) in the process of manual extraction: The full combs are uncapped (the wax lids of the cells are removed), then go into the extractor - think of an old-fashioned laundry spinner - and the centrifugal force extracts the honey. If the beekeeper did everything right, the honey can go straight into the jars, no heating or warming required.

But of course I wrote „if“.

Raw honey will crystallize at some point and yes, this may even happen while the honey is still in the combs. (But rarely, because it would mean the beekeeper has waited way too long to harvest, e.g. until spring.) Likewise, harvested honey will crystallize during storage and so the producers may have to gently warm the honey if they didn’t bottle it immediately. The speed of crystallization depends on the environmental conditions, but also on the ratio of glucose to fructose. Some types of honey will hardly ever crystallize (chestnut, for example), others will solidify almost immediately, like rape.

(And there is also the honey that is sold in the convenient squeeze bottles: It’s often warmed beyond 70C and filtered at some point to prevent future crystallization that would clog the nozzle.)

So the short answer:
No, honey need not be warmed if it’s bottled straight from the extractor. But it may be more practical or economic for producers to do so.

You might want to note that the bees keep the temperature in the hive between 33 and 36C - so without going into a “health” discussion, slowly warming the honey to that temperature will make it liquid without affecting the enzymes etc. significantly. Warming the honey beyond 40C starts to destroy them.


What type of wok apparatus is depicted in this home?

The upper green arrow looks like it is pointing to a frying/draining rack on the inside edge of the wok.  The lower green arrow looks to be pointing to the base of a wok rink to a wok range.  There would usually be another flashing or baffle to prevent the intense fire burning your hands or wok handle.  It may be on the other side of the picture.  That would be my best guess on it.


What can cause honey to crystalize quickly?

Crystallization involves two stages: nucleation (the formation of the crystals, either spontaneously, influenced by solids like the walls of the container or a foreign substance, or influenced by existing crystals) and growth (where the size of crystals increases from microscopic).
Nucleation is most likely to occur when there are impurities in the honey around which crystals can form, or there are existing crystals of honey (which may be very small). Impurities could be introduced from the air or more likely on a spoon or stirrer, and existing crystals can easily form on the walls of the container or at the opening. Stirring brings these into contact with more of the rest of the honey, enabling more nucleation to take place.
As for the growth rate, my instinct is that this will depend in a complicated way on factors like the specific composition of the honey, the temperature, air pressure and perhaps even humidity of the surrounding air. In your case, it seems that the conditions were perfect for secondary nucleation and crystal growth, so as soon as an initial crystal appeared the whole jar quickly crystallized (similarly to how supercooled water will freeze suddenly when nucleation is triggered).
In terms of your second jar of honey, all I can recommend is:

make sure you use a clean utensil (preferably made of something with a smooth surface like metal rather than wood)
try not to let honey that you have spooned out rejoin the rest of the honey in the jar (in particular, if your spoon has been sitting out of the jar don't put it back in)
insofar as you have control over the temperature, don't do the whole exercise while the honey is especially cold
if you do notice any crystallized/dried honey around the rim of the jar, clean it off with a damp cloth rather than let it mix with the liquid honey

It's also worth saying you can get crystallized honey back to a liquid state by heating gently (I use a microwave for short bursts; be careful as it can get very hot and remains sticky – you do not want to get it on you!); because of the residual crystals on the container it tends to crystallize again within a few days but it's useful when you need it.


Can Thermomix(-style) appliances knead dough well?

German article about different kneading appliances: https://www.ploetzblog.de/2015/05/13/von-klebern-krume-und-knetern-sechs-knetmaschinen-im-praxistest/

In short: Thermomix is okay but leads to a warmer dough than others because of the motor being placed right below the bowl.

Others knead from above, so the dough stays cooler. Cooler dough means more time to proof, means more taste in your bread.

If you want your appliance mainly for kneading, there are better alternatives. He recommends the Kenwood Major or Kenwood Cooking Chef. The Cooking Chef has the advantage of a heating element (like the Thermomix), which is useful for special baking stuff like a "Malzstück" (malt-piece?, introduces a malty taste and needs cooking for longer time on a precise temperature).


How do I reheat previously-cooked frozen sausage?

One option: reheat slowly in the microwave and until it is barely unfrozen enough to break apart.  Then break it down into meal-sized portions, take the part you want for now and wrap the remaining bits in cellophane so they don't freeze together again.  (My advice as a self-judged microwave expert is to heat it up at low power in 3 minute increments at first, then 2 minute increments.  Fairly early, you will find that some parts thaw faster than others.  Once this temperature difference becomes apparent, you can wait like 5 minutes in between bouts of heating it up to allow the heat to even out over the lump.)

Given that the freezing and thawing will probably not do anything good for the texture, you might consider breaking the sausage up and adding it to something like sawmill gravy or strata (or just scrambled eggs) where you won't be eating it in large chunks.


Use the same cast iron skillet or buy a new one for desserts?

Tl;dr You can use your cast iron for anything if it is seasoned and cleaned well.

I don't have a ribbed pan and it seems that would be harder to clean so I will speak only to the smooth.

My cast iron pan is reasonably well seasoned. It could be better but I only get a little sticking.

Scraping it well and scrubbing with kosher salt and a paper towel cleans it spotless from almost anything. Occasionally I have to rinse it out which doesn't damage the seasoning at all.

When it is cleaned there are no lingering flavors from previous dishes. I often cook meat, onions, desserts, and cornbread with no problems.

Cornbread has a delightfully different and deliciously rustic texture when cooked in hot cast iron.


Assuming that what you had was indeed ricotta, and not some other smoother cheese (like mascarpone), what you probably had was ricotta forced through a very fine-mesh sieve, as is common for making cannoli, also known as ricotta impastata.  Some cooks also add a little cream to it to make it even smoother.


You want "a quick, cheap, and easy solution" that moves food with vacuum:

I suppose the other one would be a very large ziplock, and you'd just put it over the whole top of the crockpot and quickly invert. Much wasted space, comparatively expensive bags.


Using sous vide to warm canned vegetables

If you were to do that it would be closer to poaching the vegetables assuming that most canned vegetables are in a liquid and the water in and out the can would be kept below the boiling point.

You would have to be carful of built up pressure by the heat (should be fine since you're not sous viding in boiling water nor is there air in the can.)


bread maker vs conventional oven vs countertop oven vs fan force oven?

It depends on what you want.

A bread maker is great if you want to measure out the ingredients, press go, and come back later to a predictable fresh loaf.  Mine also makes good pizza dough.  I have quite a cool house much of the year (and no good warm spots), so proving bread is slow  without it.

If you want to experiment, or to make sourdough or unusual bread, an oven of some form is more useful. There are advantages and disadvantages of different types of oven, but basically you need one that's got a reliable thermostat and is big enough for anything you want to cook in it.

If you've already got an oven, a breadmaker can be used to make dough, then you can bake rolls or loaves in the oven. Any given breadmaker will have a small range of sizes it can do, so if you occasionally want a lot of  bread in one go, but normally only a little, you'll end up making it by hand after all. Another option is a stand mixer combined with an oven - that's flexible and saves effort, but you have to be there at the right time, just as if you're kneading by hand


Try peeling the asparagus. This would work better with thicker asparagus.

Since the outer skin of asparagus is so smooth, I can see how glaze would just slip off. Peeled asparagus will have a slightly stickier surface for the glaze to hold on to. An added bonus is that some of the glaze should penetrate if the asparagus is peeled.

Be aware that peeled asparagus will cook faster than unpeeled. See also: Should asparagus be peeled before cooking?


Why did my vinaigrette emulsify so quickly?

You answered your own question here (emphasis mine):

(It's aged and thicker than most, but not so much that it compares unfavorably with other aged balsamic I've bought. It's just vinegar -- no added ingredients.)

Viscosity promotes emulsification by physically slowing down separation. This gives you (and your whisk!) a wider window in which to break the oil into very small droplets. Once established, the viscosity promotes stability. According to Cook's Illustrated, it's due to melanoidins in the vinegar:

These compounds, abundant in aged balsamic vinegar, are formed when sugars and proteins are heated and undergo the Maillard reaction, the chemical reaction that generates deep browning and flavor. Because the molecules of these compounds are extremely large, they increase the viscosity of emulsions so much that it becomes difficult for the oil droplets to move around and coalesce into larger droplets and eventually separate from the water; thus, the dressing is very slow to separate. (Melanoidins also happen to be responsible for the aged vinegar’s inky color.)


You have two options for freezing egg whites:

Use an ice tray and place one egg white in each of the wells
Gently mix the whites (don't whip) and place the mixture, either into ice trays or freezer bags.

Approximately 2 tablespoons of egg white mixture equals a single egg.


Here's a quick and easy way where you only your teeth and your nails. The tip of the sunflower seed shell has a little bit an edge, so I bite that off and then I crack open the cut that I made with my teeth with my nails.