Fan oven temperature conversion and biology/chemistry

I think that the feature that you would use to identify the ones that might require the same or higher temperature in fan assisted ovens is removal of water.

In the case of a fan oven, the water is more efficiently removed from the food surface by elimination/reduction of the boundary layer through circulation of air in the enclosed space. The boundary layer is a diffusion rate-limiting layer of still air that limits diffusion away from any surface (e.g. Washed clothes dry faster on a windy day than on a still one when hung outside). In conventional ovens, the boundary layer is larger as the air is largely still and the environment is isothermal.

In most recipes the cooking involves removal of water from the items being cooked, however the Maillard reaction and sterilization of (dry) glassware both rely on heat alone.


Is cooking with an air fryer similar, nutritionally, to baking?

Using an air fryer without oil is essentially the same thing as using a convection oven. This would make it no more and no less fatty than baking. If you use oil in the air fryer then my understanding is that you are being marginally less fatty than deep frying because the saturation in oil is just not as significant.

Incidentally your use of oil in a baking/grilling setting are not quite similar because the oil is allowed to drip off, it is not continuously reapplied or applied at the top and allowed to soak down. Rather it is usually on the bottom surface to prevent sticking (Note: basting with the oil would cause the food to absorb more of the fat and thus be fattier.)


First of all there's portion size: that should not matter. I'm assuming here that you transfer the food from cooking straight into the oven to keep warm, and not re-heating after cold storage. This means that your food will integrally cool down to the ambient temperature in your oven.
For temperatures there are lots of resources available, such as Fact sheet or Governmental guidelines. The first link provides the only real reference to timing I could find. It seems like from a food safety point of view there is no clearly defined maximum storage period, as long as you keep the food out of the "Danger Zone". Regular stirring of the food and the right temperature apparently keep it safe for long enough for the authors of these resources to think it not worth mentioning.
There is how ever always taste and texture to consider. I would not recommend keeping any dish warm for many hours, regardless of the temperature.


What are the safety considerations in making pine needle tea?

The most obvious and significant conifer species to be concerned about is Yew. Most yew is shrubby but I'm familiar with at least a couple individuals that are large enough to resemble a small hemlock tree if you're less familiar. Yew is extremely toxic. If you wish to forage conifer needles it's worth learning its characteristics, as it's not hard to identify once you do. Useful reference: http://aspcapro.org/sites/pro/files/zk_vetm0905_646_650.pdf

All the hemlocks (the tree kind, not the flowers) are safe. Further information- http://www.foodasmedicine.ca/2011/western-hemlock/ Link mostly discusses Western Hemlock but Eastern Hemlock is functionally identical aside from having a different set of folklore and somewhat thinner cambium.

The junipers and cedars are safe for most people in moderate amounts; that said, many of them do contain relatively powerful compounds. Eastern White Cedar (Thuja occidentalis) for example is one of the richest sources of thujone, which is a stimulant at low doses but at higher doses toxic to the nervous system and liver. Consequently some sources state that it is toxic, but this is not the whole story. Thujone is also found in culinary herbs like sage and rosemary and brewing herbs like wormwood. The dose is the question. Essential oil of wormwood contains more than enough thujone to kill you, but liqueurs made with wormwood benefit from their much lower dose. The levels available from White Cedar may indeed be risky for those pregnant or nursing, for example. For myself, on the other hand, there's no reason not to enjoy some cedar tea from time to time. Or to brew mead with it, as I like to do. This site contains a good discussion of thujone: http://ec.europa.eu/food/fs/sc/scf/out162_en.pdf.
More on junipers: http://www.eattheweeds.com/junipers/

For regular consumption across a range of constitutions the true pines are the best, though. Almost all of them are quite benign, except perhaps (again) if you're pregnant, as they are reputed to be able to induce miscarriage (also probably dose-dependent, but who would want to mess around with a risk like that?) Ponderosa Pine, also called yellow pine, is the only one that I am aware of being potentially harmful, and this seems to be usually connected with pregnancy risks as well, but to a much greater degree, at least based on its well-known toxicity to cattle. Clearly there are plenty who use it, but if you have multiple pine species around it may be best to concentrate on the others. Couldn't hurt. White Pine in particular is pretty much unimpeachable. It's easy to positively identify by the needles, which are attached in clusters of 5. White pine is the only pine with this characteristic. A good primer on pine tea: http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/3126/#b
Anyone further interested in the ethnobotany and chemistry of human use of pine products for nutrition will find this paper a treat: https://dspace.library.uvic.ca:8443//handle/1828/3248

Pine-needle tea is measured to have several times the vitamin C content of citrus fruits. Well worth it in my opinion!


The USDA recommendation for a safe internal temperature is 165 degrees for chicken.  The breast, being leaner, shouldn't be cooked to any higher than that or it will dry out and be tough.

The thigh can be cooked to a slightly higher temperature (165-175).  That is the Kitchen Network's preference for taste and texture (link here).  Getting the thigh to a slightly higher temperature (and keeping it there for longer) helps the collagen break down, which will make it more tender and taste more moist.


Giant meringue French pastry - what are these called?

They're just called meringues... Make sure to use a recipe for French meringue, not Italian meringue.

http://hipparis.com/2011/03/14/au-merveilleux-de-fred-a-meringue-bakery-in-paris/#more-16159


Is white vinegar the same as White Wine vinegar?

No, it's not. White vinegar (also known as distilled vinegar) is made of acetic acid diluted in distilled water. Its flavor is simple—its just sour. Typical concentrations range from 5–7% acetic acid.

White wine vinegar is made by allowing white wine to turn to vinegar. It has a much more complex flavor profile. It is also frequently less sour (acidic) than distilled white vinegar.


I guess it depends on what the substitution is for.

Certainly if the butter is just for flavour, it's a reasonable substitute (I think I'd use slightly more yogurt).  But 9 times out of 10, fat is the main reason the recipe is calling for butter!  Yogurt cannot substitute for a fat (butter) because it has very little fat.

If you lower the fat content of a baked good then you'll generally end up with a product much denser and less flakey.  So if you feel you must do this for some reason, then I would increase the sugar in the recipe to compensate (sugar inhibits gluten formation and will help to make the result less chewy).

The other thing you'd better keep in mind is that yogurt is naturally sour and will become even sourer when baked at a high temperature.  The longer you bake, the more sour it will become, so you might need to amp up the sugar significantly to maintain the proper flavour.

So for the most part, no, yogurt is really not a substitute for butter or any other fat.  Obviously this is partly a matter of personal taste, and if you're happy with the result, then continue doing what you're doing - but I think I'd definitely hesitate to eat a cake that was baked with yogurt instead of butter.


How can you maximise the shell life of milk in milk bags, after having opened them?

Nothing at all. It doesn't matter how you close the milk, 3-5 days in the refrigerator is the time it will last in the refrigerator.

If your grandmother wants to spend less money on milk, she will have to buy it in smaller packages. Even if they cost more per unit, she'll have to calculate the price when taking in account the waste from the bag.


What the expected temperature veration between shelfs in a fan oven?

Isn't the point of a convection oven to move the air around and create a more consistent environment in the oven?  People get caught up with the idea that an oven needs to be precise, when, in fact, very few ovens are accurate (with respect to the number on the dial and the actual internal temperature), and it is not uncommon for the temperature to range significantly within a cooking cycle.  It is also not uncommon for the temperature of a standard oven (no convection) to range in different places within the oven.  Ovens are not precision devices.  In fact, some argue that we should stop worrying about exact oven temperature (I whole hardheartedly agree), and just think in terms of three or four basic ranges (low, medium, high...or...really low, low, medium, and high).  The article specifies the temperature ranges.  Nothing that is cooked in an oven requires more specificity than this.

It seems to me, you've gone above and beyond to please your tenant.  Now, it is up to them to understand oven cookery.


What is the correct conversion of dried whole vs. ground fennel?

If you're going to grind the fennel, you can just measure it after you grind it. Since you haven't mentioned grinding it, I'm going to assume you're planning on using whole seed. That being the case, I'd figure about 1 TBS plus 1 tsp of whole seed to equal 1 TBS ground.

EDIT: As Logophobe mentioned in comments, you're not going to get the same burst of flavor using the whole seeds instead of ground. If you have a spice grinder, use it. I use a cheap rotary coffee grinder that I picked up a thrift store, it never sees coffee, just spices.

You could also use a mortar and pestle or even just slightly crush the seeds with the bottom of a skillet. Depending on the application, that could really be the best of both worlds. Lightly crushed seeds can usually substitute pretty close to 1:1 for ground, because they're going to have more flavor. Ground spices lose flavor quickly.


Why add baking powder when creaming sugar and butter?

I can't think of a reason to add the baking powder before creaming, but I can think of a few reasons not to:

Pretty much all baking powder these days is "double-acting". It provides leavening two different ways, under two different conditions: first, when it comes in contact with moisture, it produces carbon dioxide, and second, when it comes in contact with heat (in the oven). Adding the baking powder earlier than usual in a cookie recipe would trigger that first leavening earlier than normal, as soon as the baking powder comes in contact with the water in the butter. It's normally added at the end of the process so that as much of the CO2 as possible from the first leavening is still in the dough when it goes in the oven.

Perhaps more importantly, adding the baking powder to a creamed cookie dough very close to the end of mixing, along with the flour, keeps the agitation of the beater from beating too many of the carbon dioxide bubbles out of the dough. That's normally the first time the BP encounters moisture and starts that first leavening, and ideally not much mixing takes place after that step. Adding it before the creaming step begins would mean that any CO2 bubbles introduced by the first action of the baking powder aren't going to stand much chance of survival through the rest of the process, as the butter and sugar are creamed, eggs beaten in, etc.

Also, baking powder doesn't last forever, its leavening power decreases with age. Yours may just be old, or at least old enough that those two other factors were enough to affect the end product.


I'd say no. These are two very different tastes: anise is freshy with a distinctive aroma than resembles licorice whereas cumin is on the earthy side of the palette.

For substituting cumin I'd go with ground coriander seeds. You'll of course need to adjust quantities


What "all-in-one" single serving tea device(s) are sturdy, make "teapot quality" loose leaf tea, and are two pieces or less?

Are you overthinking this? A small teapot, sized for one person, would meet your criteria, wouldn't it? Unless you count the infusion basket separate from the teapot itself, you just have a teapot to rinse out (no scrubbing needed) and a mug to wash.

This is mine:

It holds around 20oz of water, so I can fill the pot, steep for a few minutes, then lift out the infuser basket and dump the leaves. You can easily do this in a breakroom or kitchenette area of an office, and then take the teapot back to your desk and voila, 3-4 cups of tea with one trip to the breakroom. Mine's made of cast iron and easily keeps the tea warm longer than it takes me to drink it. When you're all done, rinse out the teapot (cast iron won't need much more than a brief rinse) and wash your mug in the sink.

Based on my tea this afternoon (admittedly, taken in my home office today rather than at work):

It's super easy to clean out the teapot, I just ran water through it a few times. The infuser basket took a little more work, but no more than 30 seconds or so of running under the water to make sure I got all the leaves out.
The teapot has a lid, to cover the tea while steeping.
The infuser basket lifts out when the tea's done steeping.
I was able to transport the pot by the handle from my kitchen to my office without any burns. It's a little warm, but not hot enough to burn you.
I'd love to see the drop that damages cast-iron!


The cornmeal gives some texture to the end result, and helps prevent the bread from sticking to the surface by acting as little ball bearings. It's not essential unless you have a very sticky dough, then I'd suggest using baking parchment if you have it. Otherwise, if the dough is not super sticky grease the pans really well and you ought to be fine.

A good substitute for cornmeal is semolina, but if you can find that cornmeal isn't likely to be an issue to source.


Substitute for Robin Eggs malted milk candy

I suggest Whoppers. There's no crunchy candy exterior and the chocolate is somewhat thinner (I think), but those seemed to be low on your list of requirements.

They are somewhat unusual to find in grocery stores, but you may be able to find fun-size packs easily in post-Halloween sales.


Can i refrigerate bread doughs twice before baking?

You can knead dough multiple times and let it rest in the refrigerator between. I do this to make a bread with a less tough crust and finer crumb.

Keep it covered and don't let it sit too long as described in How long can I keep bread dough in the refrigerator?


How to put stuff inside baked sandwich and bread?

Adding inclusions like vegetables, fruits, nuts, and meats to bread loaves and rolls is usually done either during the initial mixing stage or during shaping.  When you should add the inclusions really depends on how large the ingredients are and how you want them distributed in the final loaf. When adding inclusions at the initial mix it is advisable to add them late in the mix/knead, after some gluten development has already occurred. Adding them early in the mix can  increase your kneading time, break up or pulverize your inclusion, or give an uneven or "off" color to the crumb from juices and colors bleeding out of the included ingredient.

Smaller, minced, or chopped inclusions can be added during the mix if you want it distributed evenly

or at shaping if you want it to appear in a distinct layer. Larger inclusions are easier to add during shaping.

Inclusions with high water (like fresh tomatoes) or fat content (like raw bacon or pepperoni) will cause large cavity formation and layer separation that might make it difficult to use the bread as a base for sandwiches and can lead to doughy undercooked areas around the inclusion.  To reduce this effect you can use a drier/dried version of fruits and vegetables such as dried tomatoes or raisins; you should render out the fat from bacon or pepperoni by pre-cooking.  If you pre-cook your bacon or pepperoni before you mix the other ingredients you can add some of the rendered fat to the mix so that the flavor permeates the bread, just reduce the amount of butter or oil called for in your original recipe.

Cheese can be added at either stage and can cause issues related to both water and fat if the wrong type of cheese is used.  Cheeses that tend to release oil and separate (like Cheddar and most aged cheeses) are better grated and added in the initial mix.  Cheeses (like Jack, Colby, Havarti, or American) that melt well can be added grated at either stage.

Most inclusions have little noticeable effect on leavening.  Cured meats and cheeses contain salt so you may need to reduce the total salt added to the dough; the curing salts used in cured meats may slightly reduce yeast activity.  Spices like cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and nutmeg can increase yeast activity, while mustard inhibits yeast activity.

Other Tips on Bread Inclusions


Is there a way to tone down the flavor of celery in an Oyster Mushroom Chowder?

I'm going to step out on a limb here and declare that you'll need to add more of the other ingredients.  Even then, you're likely to throw off the overall balance of flavors because they have not all cooked together.

Here's a study abstract that suggests there are about 6 compounds that primarily contribute to the flavor and aroma of celery.  However, as a home cook, I have no idea what any of these are or how to suppress them specifically.  It may be possible to do so, but that solution is likely to be impractical for the home chef.

Another problem is that celery has a very flavor-enhancing effect; this is why it shows up so often in traditional vegetable bases like mirepoix and trinity.  Here's another nifty article summarizing a paper that identified the specific compounds responsible for this; the odd thing is that these "phthalides" are largely tasteless.  In short: the balance and overall tastiness of your soup might have been reached specifically by adding so much celery.

I think you're going to have to chalk this one up as a learning experience and adjust your recipe next time.  One thing you could try (if you're not already, which would surprise me a little) is sweating the celery.  I find that this makes the flavor overall a bit milder, with less of the vegetal-bitter flavors while still getting the umami-enhancing effect.


Can spaghetti noodles replace lo mein noodles?

Round lo mein noodles look veeeeery similar to spaghetti:

Spaghetti

Lo mein

The biggest difference, ingredient-wise is that dried pasta (mostly?) does not contain eggs and lo mein noodles do.

I know that at least once shopping mall food court chinese food place I've eaten from uses spaghetti for their lo mein. It's kind of obvious, but it's not bad. I feel that lo mein typically has a denser, chewier bite than spaghetti. In a pinch, spaghetti will make a tasty noodle dish. It won't quite be lo mein, though.

My advice would be to try it and see what you think. Be careful to not over-cook your spaghetti.


Can frozen egg whites be used in a macaron recipe?

Yes, you can, but the results may not be the best, when it comes to tenderness and aeration of the finished (baked) product. Coagulated egg products are mainly used for omelettes, scrambled eggs and souffles especially for mass production, or great quantities.

In cooking, but especially in confectionery making, fresh eggs are usually used, especially for preparations that are very delicate, like macarons.


Can I keep herbs fresh by spraying them with fertilizer?

Dousing your herbs with fertilizer is not going to preserve your herbs, and could make you sick as many fertilizers are toxic.

If you want really fresh herbs you can keep them in pots on a windowsill, otherwise your spraying water method is about as good as you are likely to get.


Why do instructions for carving a chicken disregard the back?

Back meat on poultry tends to be rubbery, inaccessible, and there is relatively little of it. The meat is almost like other dark meat but is found only in thin sheets. Also since during traditional roasting the back meat is down in the pan it tends to be less cooked than is pleasant for dark meat.

It isn't practical to try and carve it because it is a ton of effort for just a little bit of not-very-good meat.

After carving off the major cuts I will use my hands to pull off any useful scraps- including some of the larger pieces of back meat. I save these pieces for my standard poultry scraps applications: pie, soup, and enchiladas.

Whatever is left gives up it's goodness into the broth when the carcass is boiled and is then fed, with the spent carcass, back to the chickens.


What does an American recipe mean by “1 tablespoon vanilla”?

It means vanilla extract.

Whether it's correct or not is hard to say. It does sound like a lot for something with those quantities, so it's possible they meant to say a teaspoon, which is a pretty common amount, resulting in a subtle but noticeable flavor in a batch of chocolate chip cookies, for example.

Or it's possible they just wanted whatever it is you're making to really taste like vanilla, rather than just have a hint of vanilla in the background. Vanilla really is a subtle flavor, so it takes a lot to make it strong, and it's hard for it to really be overpowering.


Using actual charcoal rather than briquettes will make much less smoke, particularly the more objectionable "coal" smoke from getting the briquettes burnt far enough that they are useable.

In my personal experience actual charcoal lights (to a usable state) faster and if you have a good tight grill can be put out by sealing the grill for re-use, much more effectively than briquettes. If your grill is no longer tight you can put it out with water, then dry it, and re-use it.

You'll still get some smoke from burning fats dripping off the meat. But proper charcoal is effectively smokeless, itself.


How long does it take for unopened cheese to go bad?

The term "bad", when applied to cheese, can actually refer to a great many defects (p. 14), several of which are caused by improper or over-aging and only some of which are dangerous.  The issues that you most likely need to worry about are:

Moisture loss applies primarily to soft cheese and is probably the first negative effect you'll see.  In a sealed package, it will "sweat" as Ivo points out, caused by water evaporating and then condensing again on the packaging, forming little droplets.  Unsealed, it will simply dry out and become hard.
This is not spoilage, and the cheese is still perfectly good to eat, it just might not have as pleasant a texture and might have a slightly flat flavour.  You can just cut off any hardened edges.

Oxidation gives a slightly metallic taste but more importantly leads to rancidity - discoloration and a sour smell/taste.  This is caused by light and is why you should store cheese in a dark place.  If you left it in the car during the afternoon, it may have been exposed to a good deal of light.  However, proper packaging greatly slows oxidation and wax paper in particular is an oxidation inhibitor (that's why cheese is often wrapped in it!).  Light exposure also would have been minimal at night.  You're probably fine in this respect, but use your nose.  If it smells sour, don't eat it.
The chemical process itself results in peroxides and free radicals, which are obviously not good to eat, although there seems to be some debate about just how dangerous they are (some say it raises the risk of cancer, although I'm unable to find an authoritative source, and this might just be an urban myth).

Mold is the most obvious form of spoilage and usually also the last.  Although most mold is technically aerobic, many strains are capable of growing with very little oxygen, and I personally have seen mold growing on an unopened package of cheddar that I'd forgotten about for several months.  I'm sure I don't need to tell you that mold isn't safe to eat; however, by the time there's enough mold to be dangerous, you'll be able to see it.
Contrary to what Ivo's post suggests, the mold you'll see growing on spoiled cheese is not the same as the mold that the cheese was made with - some cheeses, like parmesan, aren't made with any mold at all, although they can certainly grow mold later on.  The molds used in cheese-making are typically some variety of penicillium, which is safe to eat.  The mold that grows weeks later could be anything, and is not safe to eat.  Ivo is also partially correct in saying that the packaging does not prevent mold growth; however, it does slow it down by restricting the available oxygen.

On the whole, I tend to agree with the other answers that your cheese will almost certainly still be good after only 1 day.  Keep in mind that cheese is thought to have been popularized as a method for preserving milk before refrigeration existed - the whole idea is that it lasts a long while, usually well over 24 hours before food safety becomes an issue.


What's the role of bread in pickling cucumbers?

There's enormous amount of yeast and lactobacteria on the old bread (mostly sporulated, captured from the air). There's also the same tremendous amount of them readily available on fresh cucumbers.

While the yeast don't thrive much in the brine, lactobacteria are tolerant to salt -- similar process happens in sauerkraut. The difference from sauerkraut here is that getting into cucumbers is a bit harder, and cucumbers don't contain nearly as much nutrients as cabbage. Bread provides lots of starting sugar (and much other tasty stuff) for the bacteria/yeast to survive before they get into the cucumbers and adapt to feeding on something new.

Putting the jar into direct sunlight can get the temperature to 30-35 degrees, which is ideal for growing lactobacteria.

Specifically to your two questions:

Alcohol easily oxygenates into acetic acid (vinegar). This is further supported by presence of various other bacteria (esp. acetobacters).
Bread is an ideal catcher of bacteria&yeast from the air, so even if baking kills everything, a 2-3days old loaf will do. Even by touching an otherwise sterile bread you provide enough microflora to start visible fermentation in a few days. You just filter out the "bad" bugs by putting it into the brine, where only few mentioned species survive.


Are stone or metal grinding wheels better for flour?

Though I've never ground wheat, I've used metal and ceramic mills to grind spices, rice, and nuts. As far as I know you'll usually find either ceramic or steel burrs. Steel burrs though usually stainless steel, can still corrode depending on the type of steel used. Where as you typically want a harder steel for mills, you also want something corrosive resistant, but often a compromise needs to be made between one of the other.

Its known that ceramic burrs do a better jobs grinding to a consistently small grind. However I've never had an issue with a steel burr, though I've never ground anything to the fineness of OO flour.

As far as I've heard you should not grind anything in more than 1 pass. Its my understanding that its harder to grind something that's already been ground than it is to originally grind it to that same coarseness on the first run. My coffee grinder, which is a conical burr grinder, actually voids the manufacturer warranty if you do this. I assume this is because the burr can become clogged, and can wear out the motor.

In my experience I've preferred ceramic burrs for their ease of cleaning, they don't have issues with static like steel does so the burr rarely needs to be dusted off because it doesn't accumulate build up nearly as quickly.

As far as grinding to a finer coarseness I have no reason to believe that one is better than the other, and cannot think of a reason why that would be so. I've heard that ceramic is better for this, but cannot back that with any facts.

For other reasons I prefer ceramic for just about any type of burr. As far as fineness I've found that the size and quality of the burr can effect consistency the most regardless of the material its made out of.

Addition:

I've used this grinder for over 2 years now. I don't know if it will grind to the fineness of 00 flour, but its rather cheap and good quality.


The BBC lists strong white flour as simply flour made from hard white wheat, which tends to have a higher gluten content.

By mixing all purpose flour (German: 550, French: 55) with the package recommended amount of vital wheat gluten or by using bread flour you should be able to make bread in your machine just fine.  I usually use either AP flour or a mixture of AP and whole wheat (German: 1600, French: 150), or even all whole wheat (although with all wheat I find adding gluten is extremely helpful for getting a well-risen loaf).

You can also buy other types of high gluten flour, either with that label or listed as bread flour.

If you live in a part of the world with "0" and "00" flour, the protein content of "00" flour is similar to that of all purpose flour, but the grind of all purpose flour will be more coarse.  "Panifiable" 00 flour has the gluten content of bread flour (source).


How to remove unwanted aftertaste from food

There is probably no universal means.  Don't store strongly flavored liquids in plastic bottles you would like to reuse.

In the specific case of hot chocolate, it is ammenable to a number of strong flavors which may mask the odd orangey aftertaste.  I would recommend re-heating it with a pinch of cayenne pepper (really; hot pepper and chocolate go nicely), and perhaps a couple of cardamom pods if you enjoy their unique flavor.


Can I put raw ground beef in the crockpot when making chili?

There are two different issues:  safety, and flavor.

From a safety point of view, assuming you don't overload your slow cooker, and it comes up to safe temperatures (140 F, 60 C) in less than two hours (preferably much less), it is perfectly safe to begin cooking in a slow cooker with raw ground meat.

On the other hand, you will not get the flavor development that browning meat provides.   Slow cookers are essentially appliances for the long, slow, moist cooking method calling braising.

Many conventional (stovetop and oven) braising recipes begin by searing or browning the meat, prior to the braising phase.  This develops deeper, richer flavors due to the maillard reaction.

If you skip this step for a slow cooker, you will lose the benefit of this flavor development.  In some recipes, this may not be an issue, or it may even be traditional (such as for Cincinnati style chili).  For other recipes, including many chili recipes, you may choose to brown or sear your meat (or other ingredients) prior to adding it to the slow cooker to benefit from the flavor development; in this case, it is not necessary to cook the food all the way through—that will happen in the slow cooker.


Coconut rice; should it taste like coconut?

When I visited Malaysia and Singapore, the nasi lemak I tried had very little taste of coconut - many of the people I traveled with even got surprised when they heard the rice was cooked in coconut. The name literally means 'fatty rice', which indicates that the coconut milk is added only to make the rice fatty, i.e. more sticky. When I made it myself, the taste actually resembled a less sweet Nordic rice porridge, which you might have had a variant of.

If you want a more interesting aroma, you could add pandan leaf, if you know where to buy it (probably East Asian groceries). I've heard that bay leaves might give a similar taste, but a single leaf didn't give much of a change when I tried it. Substituting your rice with basmati rice is also an option.


Why does my German nut strudel fall apart?

This is not a Strudel recipe. Аs BaffledCook showed with his recipe, a Strudel is made with a phyllo dough (flour and water, usually no egg at all). The dough is then rolled out until it is paper-thin, and the filling is rolled into it. The dough gets a bit hard and flaky after baking, especially if the filling is somewhat dry, but it doesn't fall apart.

The recipe you have is not for a phyllo dough, but for a cheese-oil-dough (German: Quark-Öl-Teig). As you mention nuts, I suspect that the whole dessert is in fact a Nusszopf, one of the more common use cases for a Quark-Öl-Teig. I can see how the butter led the other people here talk about flaking pastry, but in fact this type of dough isn't supposed to be a flaky pastry, and it is normally made with a neutral vegetable oil, not with butter. If it falls apart, this means that you used too much fat and not enough water, which is probably due to both the ratio and the substitutions.

First, there is the problem of cream cheese. It is not exactly the same thing as quark, and it has a very high fat percentage, I think about 75% of the dry matter. Quark is available in three fat types, with 10%, 20% or 40% fat of the dry matter. So the first thing I'd do is to use another substitution. If you have a Russian market around you, ask for tvorog. Else try ricotta (if there is some whey in the package, don't throw it away, use it in the dough). Both are drier than quark, so maybe you can add some milk to them (my gut feeling says 20:80 milk:cheese). If you want to stay with cream cheese, you probably can do it, but you'll have to calculate how much additional fat you have and then reduce the amount of oil you use.

The second point is the fat. Your recipe says butter, but you'll improve the plasticity of your dough with a liquid oil. Use a neutral-tasting vegetable oil.

Third, I have no idea how much a stick of butter is, but as you have all the symptoms of too much fat, your recipe probably has too much. The ratio of good quark-öl-teig is 4 parts flour, 2 parts quark, 1 part oil (measured by weight!). It also incorporates some liquid (milk or egg or water, just 1-2 tbsp) and backpulver. If you don't want to go fancy, you just roll it out at maybe 1.5 cm thickness, cover with the nuts mass, roll, and bake. There are advanced braiding techniques too, but they don't affect the taste much.

The texture of the baked Nusszopf is similar to some cakes, but somewhat harder and crispier. Here a picture of what it looks like (the dark parts are the nut mass):


What fruits, vegetables, raw meats, or spices are naturally blue?

Butterfly pea flowers, corn flower, chicory flowers, blue mallow flower and blue lotus all have blue flowers and the petals are used to make tea, in salads, or to spice foods (for the color).

Black goji berries are also supposed to make a blue tea, so probably have a blue juice.  If blueberries' purple juice disqualifies them, blue juice should qualify the goji berries even if they look very dark when whole.

Blue corn is also an option, as payton B mention - there are many varieties including hopi blue, aztec black (grinds to blue meal, so blue inside), santo domingo, lenape, or my favorite (and very visibly blue) baby blue jade corn.

There's also assorted odds and ends like blue sausage fruit or succotash bean, prickly caterpillar bean, fruit of the bilberry cactus, a blue kale, a blue-green tomato (the blue-reds tend to look black, but they're called blue), couple other blue tomatoes, blue potatoes, the blue carrot Sobachatina mentioned - some heirlooms can get oddly colored, it's fun.

Some of these do tend towards the purplish, but in every case either the inside is blue, the juice or pulp is blue, or there are pictures of truly blue examples as well as purplish ones (probably depending on pH of the soil).

There's also a double handful of blue flowers and berries that are ornamental, but not eaten, and again as much of purpleish ones that have some really blue pigment (in patches or along edges).


I wouldn't do it. One of the hardest things about macarons is to stop just when everything is perfectly mixed together, not a stroke earlier or later.

When you have a small blob of gel color just before you start the macaronage, you will know when everything is mixed well: at the point at which your color is dispersed evenly, you are ready. It is a good indicator, helping you make better macarons.

If you color your syrup (and thus your meringue) evenly, you will lose the important indicator function. I guess you could pull it off once you are a macaron master who can sense the moment to stop, but especially at the beginning, why give the benefits up?


How do I recover from overheating my cast-iron skillet?

Give it a good salt scrub and re-season. Cast iron is virtually indestructible. As long as it's not cracked, it can always be cleaned up and used again.


For a recurrent use in the kitchen, copper must be lined. This is done since long time.
If you boil water for a safer consumption or to reduce the smell of disinfectants*, then definitely you should buy a copper boiler only if lined.
*otherwise don't boil it.


Pulled pork - inject brine AND immerse in brine?

Frankly - if you're aiming for pulled pork, brining at all isn't really necessary. Brining is most beneficial for lean pieces of meat because it helps the meat retain moisture and prevents a lean cut from drying out during fast cooking.

When slow-cooking a pork shoulder, you're going to wind up with very (deliberately!) overcooked meat fibers with much of their moisture squeezed out. The apparent moisture comes mostly from rendered fat and collagen converting into gelatin, which aren't really affected by brining; they are functions of the long and slow cooking process.

If you like the flavor that the brine introduces, then you can sure keep it, but given the other processes involved, I would not expect any difference in brining method to produce a noticeable difference in your pulled pork.


Take a look at this photo:

The feet are the ruffles on the edges.


Sheet pan/baking tray convention outside the US?

I'm not aware of any standard size baking trays in Europe. Here in Germany your baking tray comes with your oven. As several manufactures produce basically the same product some trays may be used interchangeably, but there is no guarantee that they really fit.

You can purchase universal folding trays that can adjust to the different ovens but they come with their own issues.


What is the lowest and slowest way I can bake pork ribs?

To achieve "done" pork ribs should reach an internal temp of 160°F (71ºC). The longer it takes to get there be more tender they will be. I would not recommend going any lower than 200°F (93ºC) for your cooking temp, even if that means turning the heat up a little at the end to reach your internal temp of 160°F. Put a good rub on, wrap the racks of ribs (individually) in aluminum foil, with some beer or cola in there (or other braising liquid) and let them go. For a video of how to do this watch this episode of "Good Eats" All of that said, I have never tried to let the ribs go 7 hours unattended, so I would try it when you have the time to hang around and monitor the internal temp, again looking for 160°F internal temp and that will give you a means to determine what is "done".


How to enhance sweetness of a baked chocolate brownie?

You could always frost the brownies, or you could also sprinkle powdered sugar with a sieve over the top to add a little extra sweetness.


What’s a good alternative to rice wine vinegar?

Rice wine vinegar and rice vinegar are the same thing, so that's easy.

For additional pantry-stocking:

Seasoned rice vinegar is just rice vinegar with a little salt & sugar added.  It's intended to be the right mixture for a number of recipes, not the least of which is sushi rice, although in my experience you're better off seasoning plain rice vinegar to the correct balance.

Rice wine is, of course, sake.  Generally if you're cooking with rice wine you want a moderately priced, clear filtered sake like Gekkeikan.  The same advice about cooking with regular wine applies here; don't try to cook with anything undrinkable.

Mirin is a specific kind of light, sweet rice wine used in braised dishes, dipping sauces, steamed fish, etc. If you can't find it, buy a drinkable sake and add around two teaspoons of sugar per 1/4 cup of sake.


That is almost certainly a "best by" date, not an expiration date. Still Tasty calls the shelf life of uncooked white rice "indefinite". Yes, you can cook and serve your rice assuming that it is free of contaminants.


Trouble Measuring the Temperature of Meat

I don't have enough reputation to put this as a comment.

Have you checked the calibration on your thermopen?

The instructions are here

Briefly:

in ice water your thermopen should read 32F
in boiling water your thermopen should read about 212F (depends on altitude)

Additionally, very thin meats will be difficult to measure.


Olive oil bottles are not sealed for health reasons. I.e., olive oil is not processed through a sterile heat canning process.

The two primary reasons for sealing the bottles are to prevent leaks and to make them tamper proof.

The type of top in your picture is a 'Ropp Top'. It features a ring below the cap that will separate from the top when you open the bottle. This is a tamper-proof feature, as is the shrink-wrapped plastic applied over it. If the bottle had been tampered with, it would be evident and should not be purchased.

As long as your bottle has no leaks, it should be properly sealed and fine to use.


How do I avoid carrot slices rolling away?

One option is to cut the carrots slightly diagonally instead of perfectly square. The resulting pieces are not perfectly cylindrical, but they tend to tipping instead of rolling all over the cutting board. (Note that this method only works if the diameter of the carrot is substantially larger than the thickness of a piece.)


First, I always rinse produce well with tap water even before putting it into the refer. I grew up on a farm and witnessed what it may be exposed to even when the farm hands care. I would also wash anything that is being peeled as the peeling process requires--at least for me--my fingers to touch the peeling, and then the peeled veggie as I am peeling the rest of it.


Making salted caramel popcorn - how can I remove the bitter flavour?

I've watched the video that you mentioned and being a pastry chef I can guarantee you that the bitterness is not due to the bicarbonate of soda even if in the video he uses a huge amount of it. The thing that is causing the bitter flavour is actually the method that he uses to make the caramel itself. Dry caramel is one of the most difficult ways to make caramel because it tends to burn really easily - in fact, it is normally made by adding sugar a bit a time, not all at once, this way you can avoid the burning of the sugar at the bottom and on the side of the pan (as you can clearly see in the video that you linked the side bits are already super brown and boiling while the sugar in the center is still solid).
So my advice to make your life easier will be to put the sugar that you need in the pot and add a bit of water, just enough to moisten the sugar a bit, put in on the heat and let it caramelise without stirring, it will take a bit longer but you can control the colour better, when you reach the colour that you like (it should be a slightly dark amber color) stir in the salt and the butter, turn off the heat and add the baking soda.


Do I need a stand mixer to make good pizza dough? If so what should I get?

You don't need a stand mixer, but it's a shortcut for those of us who don't like kneading the dough.  You could also use a bread machine (most have an option to mix and kneed, but not bake), or a food processor (use a dough blade), or just knead by hand.

If you look, you can find some no-knead, or at least less-knead pizza dough recipes, and there's some styles of pizza crust that are more biscuit like than what most people think of as pizza.  (It's popular in Maryland, and it has the advantage that you don't have to wait or things to rise, etc, so there's no advance planning necessary other than pre-heating an oven).

...

As for brands of mixer ... I won't get into that discussion, as I haven't owned enough of them to be able to give a good comparison.  Just make sure it has a warranty or a return policy, as my neighbor had some problems with the first model she bought ... she ended up going with a different brand because of all of the problems.


Is there a resource on food prep times for labor costing?

After +35 years in the Hospitality Industry, I would agree with Erica's response, and include other factors as well.
Prep times can be different dependent upon:

efficiency of individual
efficiency of environment

1) Individual: experience counts, obviously, this is why the "new person" starts in the prep section- peeling potatoes, dicing carrots, cleaning shrimp; with more experience handling the tools of the trade & understanding how to consolidate movements and improve workflow, more intensive and valuable items are added to the Prep List, such as pin-boning fresh fish fillets or dressing game hens;

2) Environment: in food production, as in the production of any other product, an efficient Work Space is of great benefit ( also obvious, once it's put into perspective ); compare your home kitchen to the kitchen of a commercial bakery, for example, with deliberate lay-out of equipment, work spaces, and storage, as well as the division of labor that will dramatically shorten the time to produce 100 apples pies, for instance, with one apple peeler, one apple chopper, four crust makers...

Therefore I would submit that to author a definitive prep time for the myriad of food items currently used in the Restaurant / Hotel / Institutional arena would be foolish, actually, maybe impossible, without taking these two ( and other ) factors into account.
Also, to create and enforce a standardized, or minimum / maximum prep time would actually be harmful. To expect an aspiring chef to be able to clean and prepare 25 whole turkeys for a buffet, within the same time that an able and experienced chef would complete such a task, risks danger to the new-comer by hurried, improper, and unsafe knife handling ( for just one example ). Furthermore it increases the risks to the guests that may consume a contaminated final product, due to the our new-comer attempting to finish this task in the arbitrary allotted time.

( other factors: just gonna put this out there... a large hotel operation, with a prep staff that is in the union, in my experience, will be much slower - or more deliberate, perhaps - that the aspiring sous chef who needs to prepare the dinner special at 4 pm...! )

An efficient operator will calculate these times themselves, and continually review them, to save labor, and increase efficiency.

Veritas!


Reuse frying & sauce pans multiple times during cooking session

I think thermal shock is unlikely to be a problem at the temperatures you're likely to use.  I had heard that it is mainly a problem if the pan is very hot (500 degrees or more, although some materials like cast iron are more susceptible to thermal shock than others) and if the shock is very great, like plunging the whole thing into cold water.

I wouldn't even think about thermal shock at temperatures cool enough to be cooking with - if the water is sizzling and dancing on the pot, that's the test for it being ht enough to cook, and adding room temperature food or liquid for de-glazing are well within the expected ranges for temperature, and probably as much of a temperature difference as you're getting when rinsing your pan.  If your food is done cooking, and cool enough you can put it into plastic without worrying, the pan it's cooked in and that has been off the heat while you're scraping the food out will probably be cooled enough not to crack from being run under water.

As a side note, I once had a pan crack from thermal shock - it did not shatter, or blast pieces everywhere, but spluttered a lot of steam and sharply cracked nearly in half to let it equalize the thermal stress.  It is not pleasant, but it was not quite as terrifying as "blasting pieces" makes it sound.

As for residues, I personally wouldn't worry about them too much - since very little will stay in the pan after being rinsed off, and they should have already been cooked to safe temperatures, the pan doesn't sound like it will be sitting out between sessions long enough to breed anything dangerous (which would be hours), and the next batch of food should be cooked to safe temperatures again.  I would be more concerned about flavor contamination than safety, although different people tolerate different levels of risk.


The spring onions and bay leaves honestly seem like a waste. Usually you discard the soaking water, and that's going to take most of the already-subtle flavor with it.

So if you want to add flavor, whether with spring onions and bay leaves, spices, or anything else, add it during cooking. The cooking time is plenty long to get all the flavor into the water/broth and beans, and you won't be pouring any of it down the drain.

Baking soda is added during soaking mainly to help soften the beans faster. People will also say it helps reduce gas-causing sugars, and perhaps other reasons, but it's hard to find evidence for them.

Relatedly, many people add salt during soaking to help soften and avoid bursting.


The easiest way where I live to get rennet is to buy Junket tablets at the grocery store. If they have it it's near the ice cream toppings. You can buy it online from the company. It's very cheap and although not 100% pure rennet it works just fine for the variety of cheeses I have made. The box of tablets comes with reliable recipes for a variety of cheeses and ice cream.

Online cheese making suppliers can sell you "higher quality" rennet that is much more expensive. This may make sense for you- especially if you are buying from them anyway for specialized bacteria or mold to make a particular cheese like swiss, etc. I can't recommend one in particular but they are easy to find.

You can make your own. I wouldn't recommend it. Rennet is an enzyme used by calves to digest their mother's milk. Historically, when a calf was slaughtered the correct stomach (I believe the first) would be chopped up and soaked for some time in water. The stomach was then removed and the water with dissolved rennet would be used to make cheese.

If you have access to a calf and have a tougher constitution than I you could certainly try this.

Nowadays rennet is mostly recombinantly produced. For those opposed to our genetically-modified-bacteria-friends non-recombinant rennet can be found. Vegetarian rennet derived from vegetables or mold with similar properties is also available. Recombinant is, of course, much less expensive.


Liquid sloshing around in vacuum-packed mussels?

It's hard to see how much liquid is there. It could just be brine or seawater which would be ok, but considering the date of mid 2018 and the fact the the packet says "live" and "do not freeze" I would have to assume that they were frozen slowly by the retailer and the resulting large ice crystals damaged the flesh, causing the mussels to weep liquid upon thawing.
These would have to have been in quite a deep deep freeze to have a hope of being surely safe.


Is it true that generally chicken ham is not as tasty as pork ham?

I don't know that one's particularly 'tastier' than the other, but it's more about what you're familiar with.  It wasn't what you were expecting, and so it tastes bad to you.

For example, say you're at a restaurant, and you order a soft drink, but they bring you something that looks right, but isn't.  (eg, you order root beer, and they bring you a cola or visa versa).  Even if you would normally like what they brought you, your mind is expecting something other than what your taste buds get, and it just tastes wrong no matter how much you typically like the drink they brought.

It's similar to trying foods for the first time -- you often need to try it multiple times until you can really taste it, because your mind isn't sending you signals of 'that wasn't what I was expecting' and 'I don't know what that is, it might be poisonous or have gone off, I should puke this up right now'

There are lots of low quality pork-based hams, so it's impossible to say that all chicken hams are worse than pork hams.  But it's worth noting that cured porks are high in glutamates, which we sense as meaty (aka umami, as it's not all from meat).  If the chicken ham doesn't have MSG or some other form of added glutamates, or if they try to make it 'healthy' and reduce the sodium, it's going to taste 'flat' as compared to pork hams.

For the time being, I'd recommend that you ask for extra tomatoes (high in glutamates) and extra salt or other seasonings until your taste buds are more familiar with the chicken ham.  If you can handle dairy, also switch to the parmesan bread when it's available.  Your other option is to avoid ham entirely for a few months so that your memory of what that sandiwch normally tastes like isn't so strong.


Are there any tools / "life hacks" to cut sphere-shaped potatoes and carrots?

I think @ChrisH is on to something with the melon baller. They come in various sizes such as 1 cm, 1/2", 3 cm, and 1", to name a few. While 1 cm is the smallest I could find, it will still be larger than the peas which have an average size of .5 cm.

That said, you could use the 1 cm or 1/2" melon baller for the rest of your veggies and the egg. Of course, the egg will have to be cooked before scooping. But I think that is the answer for the carrots, too. Clean them and cook them whole before scooping.

While you could go either way with the potatoes, I think I would peel and cook them first.

With the harder veggies, you want to be sure they are fully cooked, but be sure not to overcook them. Too soft and the scooping could be a disaster.

The other option for the harder vegetables would be to partially cook them, scoop the balls out, and then finish cooking to your desired doneness.


Looking for a Finnish bread name and recipe

Sounds like kalakukko. From  Wikipedia :

Kalakukko is a traditional food from the Finnish region of Savonia made from fish baked inside a loaf of bread. The Cornish pasty from Cornwall has the same basic idea of complete packed lunch. Kalakukko is especially popular in Kuopio, capital city of the Northern Savonia region. Kuopio is home to many kalakukko bakeries. The city also hosts an annual kalakukko baking contest.[1]
Traditionally, kalakukko is prepared with rye flour (like ruisleipä), although wheat is often added to make the dough more pliable. The filling consists of fish, pork and bacon, and is seasoned with salt (unless the pork is already salted). After being baked for several hours, traditionally in a masonry oven, kalakukko looks much like a large loaf of rye bread. If prepared correctly, bones of the fish soften and the meat and fish juices cook thoroughly inside the bread. This results in a moist filling.


That tool is indeed a slicer for cutting cabbage in preparation for fermenting it in a large pottery crock for sauerkraut. My mother used one very similar to make a five gallon and a ten gallon of crock full of sauerkraut every year back in the 50's and 60's.


Bought a new pre-seasoned cast iron and not sure if seasoning is good

I've seen similar things on a couple of pre-seasoned pans (one of them a Lodge). My suspicion is that the uneven heating of the pan leads the seasoning in one area to burn, while the other area completes the polymerization that began during pre-seasoning.

The number one thing that people do wrong with cast iron is worrying too much about the seasoning. Seasoning will basically just happen eventually; manually seasoning the pan is just an optional means to shortcut a longer period of natural seasoning through cooking; actual problems with the surface (rust, caked-on carbon, and... I think that's it) are thoroughly obvious.

Seasoning is as seasoning does. A cast-iron pan will never be as non-stick as a teflon-coated pan, but it should display superior food release compared to a bare steel pan. So just... cook with the thing. Differences in shininess should be ignored; differences in stickiness should not be.


Emulsifying (and stabilizing?) a sesame oil ice cream

It seems that what you are trying to produce is a thin mayonnaise. So:

Will it be possible to create the emulsion with just a spatula and a pot?

No. You will have to really emulsify the stuff, preferably with something with a motor. Look into ways to make mayonnaise.

However, that would probably be wasteful, especially because the acetic acid would rapidly volatilize at 50°C. Do I have any other options besides citric acid?

In practice, standard mayonnaise, hollandaise and other yolk emulsified sauces do perfectly well with vinegar. Also, you are making a logical error here - if pure acetic acid boils at 50°C (something I've never bothered to check) this doesn't mean that you will get the acetic acid boiling out of a complex mixture of vinegar, oil, yolk and other stuff taken to 50°C. You probably do have other options, but why would you even bother?
I have no idea whether the lecithine will be helped by basic ingredients, but the results on taste will be terrible. With all that fat, you are likely to end up with the worst soapy taste ever. I wouldn't ever try going in that direction.

Do all these ingredients seem to be in the right proportion?

No. 15 eggs per 350 g of oil is very strange. Mayonnaise usually takes one yolk per 50-300 g of oil for taste purposes, although you can use less (books disagree on how much less, Ruhlmann's Ratio for example disproves McGee's On Food and cooking, saying that in practical tests, mayonnaise started breaking at around 1/4 tsp of yolk per 6 ounces of oil). I would say that 3-4 yolks for that amount will be normal.
The bigger trouble here is the water. While you do need a tiny bit of water to start a mayonnaise, if you add too much relative to the yolk, you end up with an ugly greasy soup. So you won't be able to make the emulsion first, then try to use it as milk. I have never used allulose, but I hope that as typical sugars it is water soluble, so you might have to create a syrup with it, then create separately your mayonnaise, then mix the two gently.
The whole idea will be very difficult to pull off. The mayonnaise will be doable, but thinning it with the syrup might prove difficult without it breaking. If you manage that, you have the next problem: I don't think that frozen mayonnaise is any good, I suspect that your ice cream will melt into a very weird and unpleasant texture in the mouth if you can get it to freeze into a usable consistency at all. And beside the texture, I expect the taste to also be pretty strange - more like an American sandwich sauce (you know, these sugared mayonnaises which you get in places like Subway) than like ice cream.
A much easier route might be to try making a gelato style ice cream by cooking a pudding with your water and sweetener and some starch, then mixing the oil (and eggs, if you want them) right into the cooked pudding. It is much likely to stand up to freezing in a machine, then thawing, although it is likely to taste better with much less fat than you are planning to use. Also, the problem with "sandwich sauce taste" will remain.


Yes, it would be reading too much.  ADM is a food processing company, and it operates a number of mills.  King Arthur doesn't mill its own flour (and I assume neither does Aldi).  The commodity wheat market in the U.S. tends to move huge amounts of wheat to centralized mills, where it is then packaged (and perhaps branded).

That doesn't mean branding means nothing.  King Arthur, for example, requires very specific standards for its wheat, milling process, and final flour characteristics.  Aldi flour is cheaper partly because it probably doesn't require the kind of close tolerances that King Arthur specifies.

Is it possible that some wheat from the same fields ends up milled at the same place and packaged as different brands?  Yes.  But again, each flour brand will have their own requirements for their flour.  If I buy King Arthur flour, I know that my flour will have protein and ash percentages precisely specified to a tolerance within 0.2%.  (For years, I could find an easy summary of those specs and tolerances on the King Arthur website; I don't know where it is now, but I assume the numbers are available on request.)  Most other flour companies don't provide such numbers, or they specify much wider tolerances.  That likely means their batches perhaps aren't as rigorously tested at the mills and/or the requirements the flour brand demands of farmers producing wheat aren't as rigorous.

In any case, the ADM mill probably processes lots of food from lots of sources for lots of branded goods.  Hence the potential for cross-contamination.

Also, it's important to note that "all-purpose flour" is typically a blend of different wheat varieties.  Those wheat varieties may be grown in different locations and/or in different seasons of the year.  Different flour brands will have various requirements for that blending, so I suppose it's possible for a batch of wheat from some farm of some variety to end up in the AP flour blends for multiple brands.  Or perhaps some wheat that was grown on the farm wasn't up to the King Arthur specs for one reason or another, so it ended up in the Aldi flour, but all the wheat from that farm is under suspicion for contamination or something.  In any case, the final AP flour blends will still be quite different.


Whipped cream was made for centuries before the mixer was invented. :)

You can do it with simply a balloon whisk. Things that may help though:

Very cold cream (not freezing)
Very cold bowl and whisk (put them in the freezer for 20 minutes prior to using)
Copper bowl

The process is simply to start slow until you see bubbles form, then speed up until you see the whisk begin to leave trails in the cream, then go full speed ahead until just before it starts to look soft and billowy. At this point you can add your sugar and continue whipping until thickens and firms up to form soft peaks.

Advice: Buy a hand-mixer at least! :)

Update - Yes you can whip it with a stick blender. I would be careful to avoid over- whipping with this method though. It might be easy to over-do it, and you'll start to make butter.


There is no Pad See Lew. Pad See Ew means to fry with soy sauce. In Thailand this menu is typically cook with flat rice noodle, fry with kale, egg and soy sauce.
I agree that Pad See Lew is a typo error. When I type into google in redirects me to Pad See Ew.

Credit : wikipedia


What is the best way to go about developing and formulating a product?

I've had two food products made to my specifications via contract manufacturing and evaluated contract manufacturing of several other products.

Fundamentally the process requires you to have enough of an understanding of the product you want to be able to work with the contract manufacturer to make it. In one case, I didn't have any meaningful experience with production of the products (a flavor variation of chocolate dipped fortune cookies, and some custom flavor chocolates) but I did have a relationship with a company that already did such products and I knew of one or two others I could reach out to if needed. In another case, I had plenty of experience making variations of the products (a series of salad dressings, drinks, & sauces basically) but no experience in arranging for the production of shelf-stable versions of it.

It turns out my limitations were relatively easily surmountable; the only reason I didn't end up doing the salad dressings were financial constraints and difficulty in procuring a key ingredient.

In both cases, I spent time researching and experimenting with the right ratios of ingredients for the product.

With the salad dressing example, I developed a basic recipe, then reached out to a company that happens to do a fair amount of that kind of work, and penciled out details regarding the approximate production cost range, and discussed questions about shelf-stability. Had I progressed any further, food scientists at the contract manufacturer were available to help analyze the recipe to determine any adjustments required for shelf-stability and other food safety considerations. There were probably some fees attached to their work, but those weren't as big of a concern, in my case, as getting one of the ingredients in "large but small" quantities from outside of the US. (Too small for full container load international shipping, yet quantities too large for small suppliers, etc.) Your problems will be different than mine.

With the chocolate products, I had a bit of base knowledge of the ingredients I was working with and had already done some other desserts using the signature ingredient. So with the help of the manufacturer, we tried a small batch run based on the ratio I felt would work. It was pleasant enough to sample to customers, though I wanted to make some further adjustments, so subsequent batches tweaked ratios a bit. Ultimately I settled on a formula that balanced my taste preference with the cost (and some technical considerations).

Most food product development requires you to have some foundational knowledge, either about the ingredients or the techniques involved, unless you're comfortable just throwing tons of money at reducing the problem space. Fundamentally you're trying to reduce the problem scope into small, solvable challenges instead of navigating a vast landscape of possibility. If you don't have the expertise required to get there, start by talking with people who do something similar enough that you can leverage their knowledge.


If it's just scorched on the bottom of the pan, and you haven't mixed the burnt material into the rest of the gravy, you can try just pouring the good gravy into another pan.

If you've tried to stir it and scrape the burnt stuff off the bottom, there's not much you can do. The human palette can detect very small quantities of burnt flavours, so you won't be able to mask it.


Rumtscho pretty much summed it up in his comment above: You can't really stew chicken breasts (at least not from the young chickens that are found in most supermarkets).  The reason is that what makes a meat "fall apart" tender is its fat and collagen content.  Collagen is connective tissue that is usually found in muscles that do a lot of work for the animal.  When collagen cooks in a moist environment at a low temperature for a long time (i.e., a stew), it converts into gelatin, which is soft (causing the meat to fall apart) and is interpreted by the mouth to be moist and delicious.

The problem is that the breasts don't do much work on today's factory farmed chickens.  Even if you were able to find an old rooster that has lived long enough to build up some collagen, there still wouldn't be much in its breasts.

Legs and thighs, on the other hand, do have a bit more collagen and could benefit from a short stew.


How to tell the difference between sugar crystals and mold in dried fruit?

If you are talking about the cut surface of the pears, especially near the core cut-out, those little white dots may be not sugar, but a normal occurrence in pears, little gritty cells in the fruit. They are what crunch between your teeth when you eat a pear, aren't harmful, and are not mold. Mold would be in irregular patches likely with a greenish/bluish/grayish tint, and the larger patches would probably look a little furry, or at least have a matte finish, not shiny. This very uniform array of tiny dots (at least what I see) don't look like mold.


Is there something I can do to keep ice-cream soft?

Yes, actually, there are two magic ingredients: Guar gum and Xanthan gum.

Guar gum is a thickener, but in small quantities can also prevent the growth of ice crystals which would cause the ice cream to harden into icicles.

Xanthan gum is a stabilizer which helps keep air (called overrun) in the mixture.  Air is generally churned into ice cream by ice cream machines, but it won't stay that way without the stabilizer.


The cubed carrots should be placed like the image. It should not be kept in water as the flavour of the carrots will decrease with time. I have noticed that the long term exposure of carrots to water will soften them but with some noticeable change in the taste.

Further, to keep the carrots really fresh you can use the same technique, simply wet a piece of cloth (preferably cotton), squeeze to loose 70% of water in it and then cover your carrots. The freshness and the taste; everything will be maintained for sure.


What regular product can replace Philadelphia cooking creme in a chicken pie recipe?

Why not make your own cheese sauce. You could do something like; roux, milk and cheese.

Or you could always use something like ricotta cheese or boursin cheese that is a spreadable and more natural cheese.


Botulinum Toxin in Home-Canned Green Beans

The only way to prevent botulism in canned foods is to either make it to acidic for the spores to survive, or to pressure can it using the right equipment at a temperature of 121C for at least 3 minutes. If this hasn't been done then it could be full of botulism, in which case simply cooking it above 80C for say 30 minutes just to be sure (that's double the 15 minutes I've seen recommended on some sites, I'd take no chances) - as you say will destroy the toxin. If you eat it right away afterwards then you'll in all likelihood be fine, it takes a couple of hours at least for enough toxin to build up to be harmful, even in ideal conditions for it to develop.

However, if there was a chance that there was botulism in home-canned food given to me I wouldn't take the risk. Even though I know scientifically that I would be safe by following the above advice I wouldn't be able to enjoy the food, every bite I'd have nagging worries that I'm poisoning myself. If I was starving I would in a second of course, but I can walk to the corner store and buy all the food I want so why take the risks?

I wouldn't hesitate to try home canned food made by someone who knows their stuff, but if there's any doubt of the provenance of home canned food then the best advice would be to throw it away.


a few tips here

I noticed that the beef was "80% lean", try to go with little bit fatter beef like "60% lean". This sounds strange, but I would try to beat up (or stir) the minced beef before mixing with other ingredients. When you beat or stir the beef, you will notice the fat will create a gel texture that helps to stick the beef better.
I would also separate the egg yolks and egg white. I would put the egg yolk in 1st with all the ingredients and put the egg white last. Egg White on its own will also help you to stick the minced beef better.
Lastly, if it still doesn't work, try to lightly apply flour on each meat balls before cooking. The flour will help sealing the juice inside the meat balls, which the meat balls will stick together better


What else is being done to make these biscuits

It is highly likely those biscuits benefited from the skills of a food stylist.

They will have used any number of techniques to ensure the biscuits look as good as possible for the photo, possibly including some that would render them poor tasting or even inedible.

Among the things they might have done are:

Controlling the lighting to put the biscuits at their best appearance
Using a blow torch to carefully brown each biscuit individually in the most attractive way possible
Painstakingly cutting hundreds of biscuits with a fancy cutter and selecting the few that came out looking perfect for further treatment
Dabbing on flour with a paint brush to give them that rustic look

I am sure there are more tricks of the trade, but it is not something I do.

At home, you would achieve best results with a convection oven (if you have one), and a very sharp biscuit cutter (to not disturb the layers) used on biscuit dough that is properly and skillfully prepered to create the flaky layers.   Brushing the tops with milk or butter will also help them brown (and taste good).


How do you barbeque a whole piece of fish?

I BBQ whole fish or fish filets with or without skin quite regularly. You suspect the BBQ was too hot, but usually BBQs are not hot enough (unless you were REALLY hot and over like 800F?). Make sure grill is clean and apply oil to the grill and to the fish. Put fish skin side down on the BBQ until crispy and flip fish until cook to your desired temp. It might stick a bit, but it should not stick so much that it causes problems.

Common problems might be:

Sticky grill because it is dirty and not oiled
Grill is not hot enough
Fish is flipped too soon and did not get a chance to cook enough to separate itself from the grill
Fish is flipped more than once
Fish surface is not oiled (I suggest also oiling the flesh side)
Using a thick spatula (thin metal is better)
Pushing spatula hard to get under the fish. You don't need to do this. Just slide the spatula slowly under the fish if you find it is a bit sticky and more progressively.
A dirty BBQ or applying to much oil could perhaps cause a flare up. You can usually listen for the flames and if you hear fire or see it then use a spray bottle with water to disrupt the flame.


I assume you are talking about using raw (unpasteurized) milk; and want to make it safe for drinking.

I think you can boil it with the rose essence in it. It should not make a difference either way.

At worse it will taste cooked.

This link will show two ways to pasteurize the milk, either at low or high temperature.

https://www.livestrong.com/article/528722-should-i-boil-raw-milk/


What is the thick black soysauce that they pair with Hainanese Chicken Rice

Soy sauce is not all the same. The dipping sauce with Hainanese chicken rice is dark soy sauce.

The soy sauce that is most well-known around the world is what we call "light soy sauce", or often just "soy sauce". This is liquid, about as viscous as water; a small amount of the sauce ranges from light to dark brown. It is predominantly salty.

"Dark soy sauce", on the other hand, is thicker, with a consistency like a very thin honey. It is also darker; even small quantities of the sauce are black. Its flavour is deeper than light soy sauce, and depending on the type and brand can have just a stronger umami flavour, or even taste slightly sweet.

External source if needed.

If you're hunting dark soy sauce, look for labels like "superior" or "aged" soy sauce. If the bottle is not opaque, you can verify by swirling the liquid around; dark soy sauce will coat the walls of the bottle, while light soy sauce will run down quickly.

And if you're specifically looking for a variant good with chicken rice, avoid those with added ingredients like mushrooms or scallops -- the flavour profile is wrong for the dish.

(Disclosure: I'm Singaporean, and proud of it.)


What is a good way to cut potatoes into wedges?

Clean your potatoes. Peel if desired.

Slice in half, lengthways.

Place flat sides down on your cutting board. Cut again in half, lengthways. This would be for very large wedges. For slightly smaller, cut in thirds, lengthways, on a 60 degree angle, from the outside of the potato to the centre line where it hits the cutting board.

For even smaller, slice in half again after the second half cut.


Soaked urad ki dal too long - Is it safe?

If it was soaked in the refrigerator for that amount of time, it should not have a very bad smell, and should be safe.  However, if it has been sitting at room temperature for that long, and has developed an unpleasant smell, it likely has fermented, and should not be risked.  While there is no guarantee that it is yet harmful, it is not recommended from a food safety standpoint.


Are these worms in my black eyed peas/beans?

To take one concern away - practically none of the worm-looking parasites in food are dangerous. They are yucky, but harmless, even nutritious.

But as far as I can see it from the picture, these are not worms at all. Beans and related plants have an embryo in their seeds. In white legumes, the embryo is a light pink color and looks indeed like a larva. The way to check is to look at the still-intact beans. They are all made up of two symmetrical halves inside. Cut them open through the plane which separates the two halves. If they have your suspect at the concave part of the bean, where it used to attach to the pod, then this is the embryo, just a normal part of the seed which is supposed to grow into a new plant when planted.

If the embryo of multiple beans looks differently from that (or is too small to notice), then these may be larvae after all. In this case, you will probably choose to discard the food because of the disgust factor. It is still not objectively unsafe.


Why did my reverse spherification method fail to produce proper spheres?

I don't have direct experience of this concept, but I do have a couple of comments that might help.

A general comment about your choice of calcium salt:

Gluconates have a side effect - they numb mouth tissue (like taste buds). It is not a drastic effect, but that is why gluconates are the salts of choice for that stuff you put on mouth ulcers ...

I just don't like the idea of eating calcium chloride - I think I would prefer calcium acetate, if you can get it.

About the alginate bath - if the globules eventually sank to the bottom, you are fighting a surface effect, rather than having a density problem.

When I thought of ways to reduce the surface tension, I kept coming back to the idea of adding a little disodium phosphate to the alginate solution. That would also contribute to formation of globules, because it would form an insoluble complex phosphate with the calcium.

WTH, knowing my luck, adding disodium phosphate to the alginate solution could make the effect worse. I'm guessing ...

There is the consideration that, if there is calcium in your water, adding a little disodium phosphate the night before you use it will cause the calcium to precipitate and drop out of the water - then you can pour off the supernatant water, confident that the calcium is staying in the bottle.


If the outside of the bag was wet (such as if it were rinsed after sealing), that water will have evaporated. There may have been some small amount of outgassing from the plastic itself. Neither of those effects would amount to more than a few grams. If the reported difference was greater than that, the most likely explanation would be measurement/recording error.


Have you tried using one green tea bag and one bag of herbal tea? There are many herbal tea sampler packs that you could get to try several flavors of tea. Since you are making iced tea, I would also recommend adding chopped fruit once the tea has chilled - I would imagine some crisp apples or even a fresh melon would add a really refreshing profile. You can even let the fruits steep in the chilled liquid, like a tea-sangria.

Another option is to create a flavored simple syrup in order to sweeten your iced tea. It's always better to use a simple syrup in a cold liquid than any kind of 'dry' sugar. Simple syrup is easy to make on the stove or in the microwave, and just add some flavors you might like while heating it. I wouldn't recommend vanilla for green tea (gut reaction), but maybe lavender, orange or cardamom?


If your oven can maintain the set temperature, and there's adequate spacing between the two hams, you shouldn't change the time.

Note that I'm assuming that they're both going next to each other on the same rack of the oven -- if this were casseroles, you'd have to increase the time slightly and swap the two part way through, as they'd end up shielding each other from the elements.


I was always taught to take the head and tail between your fingers of each hand, pull it out straight, push together slightly, then pull apart. That should pull the whole carapace back off the body. Then you can pull off the head (and legs if they're still there) and you're done.

However, I've seldom gotten it to work when raw, and less so when cooked.

I agree, cooked shrimp are harder to peel, and just add an unwanted challenge to the diner when included in most dishes.


You can use a solution of vinegar and water to descale your kettle (unless, as hobodave mentioned, the manufacturer advises against using vinegar). Fill your kettle with water until it's half full; add about 1/2 cup of vinegar to the water, and then allow it to boil for about 10 minutes. Allow the water to cool and unplug your kettle. Gently scrub away the scale with a non-metallic pad (don't scrub the heating element if it's exposed; wipe that with a sponge). Rinse your kettle several times after removing the scale, and then boil one or two fillings of water in it to ensure that you remove all traces of the vinegar.


Rabbit that looks and tastes like chicken?

It wouldn't be the first time that a high-end restaurant has passed off more expensive ingredients as cheaper ingredients, but it's pretty unlikely. What is the most probable reason is that you had farmed rabbit as opposed to wild rabbits, which have very different flavors and textures due to diet and lifestyle.

Wild rabbits eat lots of grass and flowers which give their meat that gaminess, and they get lots of exercise running around so their texture is tougher and color darker. Farmed rabbits are given a mostly grain diet which is bland and makes the meat bland, and don't get much exercise so they are more tender.


Those ingredients you mentioned, you wanted to add, are all possible, i guess. Fat tends to make the ice cream creamier, even at low temperatures. There are many recipes out there involving egg yolk, though, because it has other properties as well. It serves as an emulsifier, which binds water to fat. This prevents separation. There are other emulsifier, too, but in my opinion egg yolk gives the best results.

As we are not a recipe sharing site and it is definitely a matter of opinion how much of what to add (my dad adds about ten egg yolks for each liter of ice cream, but that's too much for my taste in most cases), I leave you to find yourself the best recipe on the internet. :)

Edit: In order to stay safe, it is recommended to heat the egg yolks to at least 70°C, but do not cook it though! It shouldn't solidify! I always mix it with sugar and heavy cream first, to prevent premature clotting.


120 guests including children - Amounts needed please for party catering

I know that people frown upon recipes on here, but in the book "Quantity Recipes: From Meals for Many" by the New York State College for Home Economics, 1945, they recommend a serving size of 3/4 cup, which for 50 to 55 people is:

9 lbs ground beef
2 lbs ground pork
1 1/2 cups onions, chopped
1 cup beef dripping or other fat
5 qts kidney beans (#10 can) or 1 3/4 lb dried
5 qts tomatoes (1 1/2 #10 cans)
2 1/2 TB chili powder
5 TB salt
1/2 tsp pepper
3 TB sugar
1/2 lb crackers, broken

I personally wouldn't use that recipe (1.5 cups of onions and 2.5TB chili for 11 lbs of meat?), but it should give you an idea of quantity.

You might be better off making a 'normal' batch of your chili recipe and measuring to see how much it makes, but possibly adjusting if it's significantly less than 3oz of meat per serving.

It's also worth noting that chili freezes really well.  If you have the freezer space, you might want to make some in advance and freeze it.  (I use 1qt deli containers, which would be 5 1/3 servings by their estimate).  Of course, I'd also freeze it without beans and add them back when reheating (or serve it separately as an option).


If the goal is to melt collagen, couldn't that be done just as easily at a higher temp?

No, it won't be.

The reaction which has to happen to the collagen doesn't go quicker when the temperature is higher. You have to get it to 68 Celsius and wait for it to happen. If it is at more than 68 Celsius, it won't happen quicker, or better, or anything. You have no advantages.

At the same time, if you have a higher temperature, you have more trouble. First, you are wasting a lot of energy to keep the stew hotter over many hours. Second, its liquid can boil off, getting the wrong consistency. Third, if the bottom of the pot becomes too hot, it will burn on. Fourth, anything non-meat in there can suffer from the heat - vegetables can overcook, starch can burn onto the bottom, anything planty (vegetables, herbs, spices) can get its taste destroyed).

All in all, if you can cook something on a high or a low temperature, choose the low one, it is generally better for everything. Only choose high for foods which have a narrow temperature range which is high.


If you're careful not to overcook it, it'll likely be fine. Eggy bready things will indeed eventually stick pretty badly, but if you pull it out when the eggs are just barely set all the way through, it won't have time to truly stick or burn on the bottom yet. I might bake it pretty high in the oven so that the top will be more likely to be well-browned in time.


I only want to buy two knives, which two types to get?

I recommend that you get a chef's knife or a santoku (both are general purpose knives), and a paring knife.  For most western cooks who will be learning from western examples, the chef's knife may be the better choice.

These two knives will cover most needs.  See:

Which knife is best for somone just learning to cook?

If you were to add a third knife, a serrated bread knife can be very useful for certain tasks (like bread, and perhaps unexpectedly, chopping chocolate).


What side dish goes well with Peanut Chicken?

You've got some nice crunch and texture profiles in there already, but I tend towards always making a side dish to try to cover my bases in terms of getting plenty of options for people who might not like (or feel like eating) the main dish. My go to is a nice crusty bread with an unusual spread, but since you are going Asian-inspired here I would recommend something like rice paper spring rolls or to like an Indian-style samosa with a complimentary flavored potato filling.


Is there a way to prevent my Fruit Pie from getting runny?

Yes. Presumably you're doing the firming up during the cooking, and not afterwards?

Drain off liquid / condense any liquid. Heat fruit before placing in pie to drive off moisture
Use a touch of cream
Use binder / starch
Use gelatin in the fruit mixture
tapioca (credit to justkt for this one)


What is the puffy bread shown in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?

It's probably a Cottage Loaf. It used to be common in England when there were independent bakeries. It's not seen so much now.


The temperature of the ingredients is very important when making cake. You will have problems if you start from cold ingredients. I'm afraid that there are no good solutions if you don't have a warm room, all work arounds are quite laborious.

Microwaving the butter is not a good solution. It is a very uneven method of heating. You always end up with too-hard spots and melted spots beside the somewhat softened butter.

The proper way to have butter at the correct consistency is to keep it for at least overnight in an environment which is between 20 and 30 degrees Celsius, and has ambient heat. Putting it on top of a working oven and similar is problematic. If you don't have a room in your house which is at that temperature, you might consider making a water bath for your butter. Warm a Dutch oven with water in the stove until it reaches 30 Celsius, pack the butter in a smaller container, float it in the Dutch oven. Pack the whole thing in a few blankets. It should soften the butter overnight without getting too cold (you said your room doesn't fall below 10 degrees).

A workaround is to cut up the butter into very thin pieces (2-3 mm) and then put cream them with the sugar more than usual. The friction from the mixer will warm it up. This can work well if you have a stand mixer, but if you are doing it with a hand mixer, you'll need to stand there for 15-20 minutes just beating the butter. A water bath might help, but you really have to pay lots of attention not to melt the butter.

You can also consider replacing the butter. Shortening and margarine are much more beatable at low temperatures than butter. You'll get worse taste though, and some change in texture. You have to use a solid fat, not an oil. If you use a margarine, use a full-fat one, not reduced-fat spreads.

The butter is your most obvious problem, but you'll never get perfect results if your eggs are cold. The texture might be good enough for you when you bake with cold eggs; I've seen many bakers who don't mind it. But if you are really picky about your cake quality, you also need to warm the eggs overnight. Alternatively, you can quickly warm them in a water bath after breaking.

Adding milk or other liquids is counterproductive. It will change the texture of the finished cake a lot. Your recipe is a slightly modified pound cake, standard pound cake recipes don't have liquid (and neither do many other cake types). The only reason for dairy I can imagine there would be to add some acid for the baking soda to work - but then it should be buttermilk or yogurt, not milk. The more liquid you add, the less cakelike and more quickbreadlike your result will be.


How many teaspoon of milk is needed to melt 50g of chocolate?

You do not need any milk to melt chocolate. The goal with melting chocolate is to keep it within a range of heat so that it doesn't burn or separate.

A bain-marie is a technique where you place a heat-proof bowl over a pot of simmering water to heat the contents of the bowl slowly.  If you're melting chocolate for dipping bananas, I would recommend using the microwave technique (mentioned in the comments).  It's a lot easier. Just do short bursts (10-15 seconds) and stir in between each round.

Aside: If you want to go all out, you can read about tempering chocolate. Tempering chocolate will help the chocolate set with a nice shine.  It will also set at room temperature.  I avoid all this and throw the bananas in the freezer for a few minutes after dipping them in chocolate. I hope this helps!


What do I do about mold on my sourdough starter?

You should be able to just scrape the mold (I suspect due to the honey in the recipe) off and continue as normal providing there was only a little bit of mold on the surface.

If there was quite a lot or you're unsure about it then you could discard most of it then use just a tablespoon or two of the mother to seed another starter. Then if after 1 or 2 'feedings' it smells yeasty and is frothing nicely then it should be perfectly fine to use.


Why would I add garlic to a recipe after onion with such a small time difference?

This is standard in most recipes. Onions take a lot longer to cook and become aromatic. Garlic does it within 30 seconds to a minute.  Three minutes is a long time for garlic. I promise you, you don't want burned garlic in your soup.
When you add the remainder of the ingredients, particularly the liquids, you reduce the direct heat that the garlic is subjected to and prevent it from burning.
Here's some supporting info from The Kitchn:

Early in our cooking career and for a long time after, we assumed that you needed to cook garlic as long as its cousin, the onion. Our results were spotty: sometimes it was ok, sometimes we picked burned bits out of our dinner. It wasn't until we got serious about cooking that we learned another way...
Whether they're being used in a quick stir fry or as the base for a soup or sauce, both onions and garlic need to be cooked at least little to get rid of their raw bite. However, while onions benefit from a longer cooking time, garlic will quickly burn and become acrid if cooked the same way.
Garlic usually does best if it's cooked quickly and over medium heat. About thirty seconds will do the trick. This is just enough time to cook off the rawness, allow the flavor to mellow into the dish, and let the aroma to hit its peak. You'll know it's done when you can smell the garlic and your mouth starts watering!
To account for these different cooking times, start the onions first, cook all the other main ingredients, and then add the garlic last. We like to clear a little spot (or "clean slate") in the middle of the pan to let the garlic cook by itself for a few seconds before stirring it into the rest of the dish.


New green leaf vegetable in the family. What is it called?

This looks a lot like a sweetheart cabbage... it does not look very new though.


How to color Jiaozi (chinese dumplings)?

You could add chopped fresh herbs to the dough. I'm not familiar with Jiaozi to know how much it would affect the texture, but its common in pasta dough. If you chop it fine enough, it should bleed quite a bit of green color into the dough.

I don't know any particularly traditional food coloring methods, but I do know that tea is often used in place of water to change the color and taste of certain dishes (e.g. tea eggs). However, I doubt that is a flavor you really want to introduce into the dumpling dough.


Why doesn't my cheese cake rise when cooked in a water bath?

The water bath is doing exactly what it should. Most recipes are designed to make your cheesecake rise as little as possible.

Baking a cheesecake is kind of like baking a souffle, except instead of encouraging rise, you combat it.

Cheesecake doesn't have the structure to sustain rising. Cream cheese can't hold the air, so when it rises, it eventually collapses & cracks.

Overmixing can incorporate too much air, which expands when it gets hot and collapses when it cools. Most recipes therefore advise against over mixing. A too-high temperature can have a similar result, converting too much liquid to steam, which expands, then collapses. A water bath insulates against the heat, allowing the cheesecake to cook more gently to combat that "too hot rise"


Advice on preparing/incorporating sprouts in salads?

I'm going to guess that you mean bean-sprouts, and not Brussels sprouts.
In that case, you just roll with the crunchiness. There's a lot to be said for balancing textures and not just flavours.

Tomatoes and cucumbers are relatively soft; peppers, sprouts and celery give crunch; lettuce and cabbage give a sort of fibry texture. They can all happily co-exist in the same salad.

If you did mean Brussels sprouts, I would recommend just using cabbage instead. It can be finely chopped into a salad and gives a nice touch.


That foam is perfectly natural.

The foam is the result of meats natural protein composition. If you've ever poached eggs, or boiled lobster, or cooked a stock, you'll know that the water can become a little scummy. If you leave the pot on, that scum makes a white-ish or grey-ish foam that forms lovely looking rafts. That foam is made of water soluble protein.

In your case, you have wet sausage meat in a case. A small amount of that meat's proteins, mostly sarcoplasm and myoglobin, are going to escape from their cells and into the meat juice.

When the sausage case breaks, that juice, a mix of water and protein, is escaping into a hot oven, and the proteins are going to spontaneously denature, forming a foam much like scrambled eggs.

If anything, you should be happy- water soluble albumin foam is a sign that the sausage is full of proteins, and is definitely made of meat, and not, say, recycled chipboard.

Enjoy the sausages!


Yes these are realistic concerns.

the tiniest amount of rancid oil can make your dish taste bad.
mold can grow on fat (e.g. penicillium in cheese).
oil only has residual amount of water, so it will not accelerate most bacterial growth.
shelf life for oil is about 6 months to a year in a dark cool cupboard
shelf life is about a year and more in fridge (but the oil clouds and solidifies).

my suggestion would be that when your container is empty, just wash it with a natural degreaser (e.g. vinegar) instead of topping it off. Or top it off, but wash the smaller bottles every 6 months.

UPDATE

Be very careful about what kind of oil you use, in particular if it is not commercial-grade. In this other question you will see that oil or other canned products that provide anaerobic environment (=without oxygen) can be good conditions for some bacteria. Some of them are specifically bad. See also the wiki page for the C. Botulinum for an example.


Air-fried sweet potatoes come up dry and tough?

Use a higher temperature, say 210ºC, and must pre-heat for 6-7 minutes.


There is no functional difference, just a matter of preference. Pots are pots, in this case. Same material and essentially the same size.


Does freezing food reset the amount of time you can put it in the fridge?

Freezing doesn’t reset the clock, it’s more like “stopping the time” - or at least slowing it down very, very much.

Like putting perishable food in the fridge and slowing down bacterial growth, freezing the food brings it to a full stop.

But unlike heating, cooling or freezing does not kill bacteria. What went in the freezer comes out again, ready to multiply as soon as the conditions are favorable again. Which means, if you quickly stashed something in the freezer just before it goes bad in the fridge, you need to use it more or less immediately after you took it out and thawed it.

Microbiologists would probably object to this answer as too general, but we are looking at the pathogens responsible for food-borne illnesses and kitchen precision.


What spices are used to make a mexican fajita seasoning?

Penzeys (a spice co.) makes theirs from:

salt, black pepper, paprika, Turkish oregano, cayenne pepper, garlic, celery, Mexican oregano, basil, nutmeg, cumin, marjoram, thyme and rosemary.

No numbers are given, and you probably don't need two kinds of oregano, but I've made it before with a similar list, and it is generally insensitive to precise ratios. I'd start with

2x black pepper, paprika, oregano, cayenne, garlic,

1x basil, cumin, marjoram

1/2x nutmeg, thyme, rosemary

bulk up with salt (store-bought stuff is mostly salt), and experiment from there. You can probably find more on google. Add hotter things or anything you find interesting :)