What can we do if we accidentally buy tamarind puree instead of paste?

The only difference between the two is that puree has a little more liquid.

You should add more puree than the recipe calls for paste to compensate for it being more dilute.

In some recipes, the extra liquid could be a problem, however, I don't think it will make any difference in pad thai in the quantities that it is used.


Can I use freeze dried fruit in a Sangria mix?

It depends on the fruit you use and whether you mind exactly how the end result turns out! freeze dried normally means berries, but they will turn to mush as they rehydrate, which is fine if you put some in a glass and drink quickly, but not good if you want them in a jug to soak up all the wine.

From personal experience, I find frozen(rather than freeze dried) oranges, apples , lemons etc work well as they stay structured, but I'd always go for fresh berries.


Alliums

It doesn't matter if they are garlic, onions, leeks or shallots, but every online recipe I can see for croc-pot celery soup has at least one of them.

If you are trying to rescue a batch you have already made, I would suggest experimenting with adding onion power and/or garlic powder or puree, be sure to get powders, not salts though. Add a little at a time and give them time to  become integrated in the soup to adjust the flavour, the result won't be instant, the powder needs to rehydrate before it fully releases its flavour.

The other element that I belatedly note is largely absent is fat. Fat carries flavours and adds satisfying mouth-feel to dishes. Again, most recipes I'm seeing online have more fat than the modest amount you will be getting from the milk. A couple of glugs of olive oil or a couple of table-spoons of butter will help bring out a richer flavour. https://www.thespruceeats.com/functions-of-fat-in-food-1328452


Why do creamed sauces often contain nutmeg?

Nutmeg provides an exotic/interesting note to cream and milk based sauces. These sauces are often based on flour, butter and dairy, so besides the potential caramelization flavors from cooking the butter and flour (which can be delicious on their own) there are few other flavor components, say, as compared to a pan sauce. A grating of nutmeg can create interest.  Not all dairy based sauces use nutmeg.  It is traditional in some cuisines, and not in others.  Why particular flavors compliment one another is an interesting and complex question. It might have to do with the molecular structure of ingredients.


If you bake a slightly undersized loaf for the pan, you won't have to trim much off, just enough for it to sit flat - maybe even that wouldn't be needed.
But I'd regard that as a first step - do that once or twice to get the quantity, then bake with a baking sheet over the top, so that the loaf expands against a flat surface.
With a yeast bread I'd probably take off the baking sheet lid half way through, but with a quickbread you'd have to wait a little longer. If the dough isn't too liquid, you could also try loading the dough into the pan, putting the baking sheet on top, then flipping the whole thing over. Again you could remove the upper piece for the end of cooking.
I've also seen very similar pans used to cook other things than bread, that don't rise, such as meatloaf, but in general they work best for things that don't stick too much as they can't be lined and are awkward to grease properly..


Could I use beer instead of/as well as water in my sourdough?

You can easily replace the liquid in most bread recipes with beer. This can have a very pronounced effect on your final dough as there is a lot more chemical and biological fun happening in beer than there is in water. In my experience, the dough with beer will usually rise faster than a similar dough with water. Generally, the flavor difference won't be that pronounced (usually a much more "bready" flavor, unless you use a beer that otherwise has a strong flavor, such as an IPA).

The acidity of the beer won't actually have that much of an effect on your final dough as the ph will be a weighted average of all of your ingredients.


How to harden a chocolate made from Regular (unsalted) butter?

This cannot be done. Chocolate has the hardness of chocolate, because it is made out of cocoa butter. Dairy butter is not suitable for that. There are industrial processes which use hydrogenated plant fat and emulsifiers to make chocolate bars with a somewhat different texture than pure chocolate, but still hard - I doubt that you can do that without industrial grade equipment.

For all practical purposes, what you are trying to do is impossible.


choux pastry, keep mixing while waiting for the roux to cool?

I don't mix my pre-egg mass (not sure that roux is the right word here), but I don't have a stand mixer. Leaving it alone works just fine as long as it is uniformly cooled. If you don't mix (or even if you do) make sure to check the temperature in the middle of the lump of dough, not on the outside.

As SAJ14SAJ mentioned, mixing it will expose all parts to the cooling air, letting it cool quicker. If this matters for you, there is nothing wrong with mixing. It may change the texture slightly in the direction of slightly chewier end product due to some gluten creation, but the difference won't be very pronounced and may not be noticeable at all, because the flour is well coated in fat.

So, the conclusion: you don't have to mix, but you can if you want to. No harm done either way, and it can go quicker with mixing.


You are lucky - your sauce is spoiling and you are seeing it.

It is not safe to can random recipes, or to store them (uncanned) for more than 5 days in the refrigerator or more than 2 hours at room temperature. This means that, if you go ahead and can them neverthelss, you get one of the outcomes:

no pathogenic bacterial growth and no symptoms of spoilage.
no pathogenic bacterial growth, but symptoms of spoilage (caused by harmless bacteria or yeasts)
pathogenic bacterial growth and no symptoms of spoilage
pathogenic bacterial growth and symptoms of spolage.

Many people try it out, get outcome 1 (which is really frequent) and conclude that it is safe and outcomes 2, 3 or 4 will never happen. They are wrong.

What happened to you is either 2 or 4, because the bubbles are caused by bacteria digesting your sauce and creating gasses as a byproduct of their metabolism. There is no way to tell if the bacteria are harmless or pathogenic. So your food is spoiled.

The reason I said "lucky": You also narrowly missed case 3, which is the most dangerous. Then you would have been at real risk to get seriously ill, without any warning.


If you are referring to the pasta dish, don't make the aglio e olio until you put your pasta in the water.  Then, when pasta is a minute or so from being finished remove it from the water and place it into the pan with the aglio e olio to finish cooking.  Add a little pasta water to emulsify.  Serve. In this scenario, it should never cool during preparation and the entire dish only takes as long to make as the cooking of the pasta.


How can you judge whether juice is really freshly squeezed?

This isn't exactly scientific but..

Taste.
Specifically looking for the taste difference between pasteurized and un-pasteurized juice. Pasteurized orange juice has a  distinct tart taste that just isn't there with fresh juice.

I guess it depends on your exact meaning of "fresh", but if it hasn't been pasteurized then it will have a shelf-life of only a few days.

The legal specifics of the terms will vary from country to country, so if you have one in mind then you might have to mention that. Although as you hinted at, the legally defined terms are often side-stepped and might not be much use.


Can yogurt be used as a substitute for yeast in pizza dough?

No, the bacteria in yogurt will not serve as the primary leavening agent for dough.


What qualities should I be looking for when making the best French Toast?

Great french toast starts with the bread. You're looking for two things: thick slices, and staleness. Why stale? Stale bread has enough firmness to stand up to the custard. If you don't have stale bread available, you can set it out the night before in a simple wire rack. At least 8 hours should be enough to stale it up nicely. They will be rather firm to the touch.

The ideal finished product is crispy on the outside and creamy in the middle. This might be what you mean by mushy, but mushy in my mind is kind of negative. The key to accomplishing this is to let your bread soak in the custard only 30 seconds per side, but then move it to a rack to sit for another 2 minutes further. This extra set time allows the custard to penetrate deep inside the bread, and be distributed much more evenly.

The final trick to getting a nice crispy crust, is to cook it twice. First in the pan/griddle as you normally would, but then 5 minutes in a 375 F oven on a rack. This brief oven stint crisps up the exterior nicely.

I highly suggest watching Alton Brown's Good Eats: French Toast episode. That's where I learned the oven trick, and his recipe hasn't done me wrong since.

Regarding challah, I've never had it, but based on the Wikipedia description it sure sounds like a good candidate. Just make sure you slice and stale it overnight.


I pre-cook my peppers -- after I've cut them open, I let them roast in the oven for about 10-20 min, upside down (so they don't end up with a pool of water in the bottom).  I then pull them out once they've softened up a little bit, fill them, and put them back in to warm through and melt any cheese, then switch it to broil to get them browned on top.

My filling is already cooked, as I typically use leftovers such as taco meat, rice & cheese. (my mom always insisted them were 'planned overs' as there are a number of dishes where we intentionally cook too much so that we'd have it as an ingredient for the next night's meal.)


How many carbs I will lose by cold fermenting my bread dough?

Though it's true that yeast will consume some of the carbs to produce byproducts (such as CO2) that affect the flavor and texture of the bread, the amount that these microorganisms will consume is tiny compared to the amount of carbs that exist in the bread.

It won't be a noticeable amount from a human nutrition perspective.


How to make homemade pinto beans taste like canned refried beans?

Lard is the fat of choice in many "el cheapo" canned refried beans, and could be what you are missing.


Does boiling meatball remove some flavor

You can certainly poach meatballs.  I wouldn't boil them, as the rolling action could tear them apart. It is more common to poach in a sauce, however water can certainly be used. You will lose some flavor (taste the water afterward, you will see), however, it wouldn't be a reason to avoid the technique if you have a purpose for it.  Lots of things are poached and still have flavor.


Reheating no boil lentil lasagna noodles after freezing

Thawing will always result in somewhat mushier texture than freshly baked pasta.

I'm not familiar with lentil pastas, but I would expect them to be mushier after thawing compared to regular wheat flour pasta.

If you intend to prepare your lasagna in advance for lunches (for example), you could undercook the pasta a little bit so that it finishes when reheating.


How does thermal shock affect pans made of different materials?

Coated (e. g. enamel, PTFE, ceramic)

I can't answer in general, but that one's easy. Sudden thermal shock causes strain in a material by unequal expansion, either in the same material by high thermal gradients, or in interfaces between materials with different coefficients of thermal expansion. The strain in this case (two different materials) can be very high. If the material in question is not elastic (e.g. enamel + ceramic; I would think PTFE is different, but I'm not sure), then the bonds between the coating and the metal would be severely strained and it would likely crack and chip.
I can tell you from personal experience that I have actually used this to my advantage:
In the spring, I produce a small quantity of maple syrup by boiling sap in an uncoated stainless steel pan. On rare occasions, accompanied by the release of many expletives, I have let the syrup boil down too far, at which point it burns and seems to coat the bottom of the pan with a thin but hard and very resilient layer of carbon black. The trick to removing this stuff is to get some kind of stress crack started, e.g. by scrubbing w/ steel wool or a copper pad, and then what I do is I put the pan on the stove for a while to let it heat up hot (but not red hot), and then bring it over to the sink and spray cold water on the inside pan bottom where the carbon black has stuck to. After a few times, the carbon black will start to flake off and then it becomes easier to remove by a combination of abrasion and thermal shock. (The two pans I've done this on have been fine; both are stainless steel with a thick (>8mm) bottom, and I've put them through at least 30 or 40 thermal cycles of this type.)

edit re: general topic:
Wikipedia says this:

The robustness of a material to thermal shock is characterized with the thermal shock parameter:

where

k is thermal conductivity,
σT is maximal tension the material can resist,
α is the thermal expansion coefficient
E is the Young's modulus, and
ν is the Poisson ratio.

Higher thermal conductivity means it's more difficult to get a large thermal gradient across the material (less prone to shock); higher thermal expansion means more strain (more prone to shock), and higher Young's modulus means more stress for a given strain (more prone to shock).
So theoretically you could compare the different materials. (exercise for the reader ;) Most likely copper would be more resilient than the other metals, because of its higher thermal conductivity and higher ductility.
Thermal conductivity k: Copper = 401, Aluminum alloys = 120-180, stainless steel = 12-45 (units = W/m*K)
σT: no idea:
Coefficient of thermal expansion α: Copper = 17, Aluminum = 23, iron = 11.1, stainless steel = 17.3 (units = 10−6/°C)
Young's modulus E: Copper = 117, Aluminum = 69, iron/steel = around 200 (units = GPa)
Poisson's ratio ν: Copper/stainless steel/aluminum are all around 0.3-0.33, cast iron = 0.21-0.26
So stainless steel is worse than aluminum or copper (much lower thermal conductivity, higher Young's modulus).


Forgot to turn the crockpot on with pork in it

The USDA provides online Food Safety Information describing the risks.  You can also call them with questions.

Generally, two hours in the "danger zone" is OK, but keep in mind that's two hours total including time at the meat packing company, in shipping, at the store, on your way home from the store, during your preparation, and any reheating.


I could find nothing on a "Go Chef Cooker" so I cannot speak for that.  When I did the search, I found some Pressure Cookers, and those won't be a very viable choice for smoking foods.

There are a couple of ways that you can smoke meats indoors.

One of the ways is to do it in the oven.  There is a "smoker" box that is used for indoor smoking.  The box contains a rack and the smoker chips sit below the rack in the bottom of the box, while the meat sits on the rack suspended in the box.  The oven causes the chips to smoke. But, because it is completely enclosed (sealed), the smoke does not infiltrate the kitchen/house.  When you open it, after cooking, you might want to open it outdoors so that the smoke is not released indoors.  I also suspect that the cooking time might vary because it is a different method of cooking. Note: I do not have one. I use an electric outdoor smoker. My FIL uses a smoker that is a 30" diameter steel pipe mounted on an old axle with wheels, tires, a trailer hitch, & a license plate.  I expect this will be your best bet for smoking without an appliance that belongs outdoors.

Another way would be to have an indoor grill, like a Jenn-Air range with a cooktop that has burner racks and a downdraft exhaust. But, this is only good for grilling thin meats & I would not expect them to give much smoke flavor to a bird.

Another way would be to use some Liquid Smoke type product.  With this, you could use it in a baste or marinade, then simply bake in the oven as you would any bird.  Doing this will give you a couple of limited choices on flavor, like Hickory or Mesquite, but using real wood chips in a physical smoker (either stove top or outdoors) will give you the option to vary the flavor by using some pecan, oak, apple, cherry, or other woods.  Doing a search for "stovetop smoker" will provide some good results.


What is the advantage of a roux over a raw flour slurry, in sauce?

Roux Method

The advantages of the roux method:

It can be prepared in advance
The raw flour taste is cooked out when the roux is prepared, so the sauce is ready as soon as it is thickened; this also makes it easier to add more roux to adjust the thickness of the sauce.
It actually requires less supervision.  You are actually being overly fussy with your roux based sauce.  You could add all of the milk at once, although starting with one smaller batch just to dissolve the roux is a good idea.
The butter coats the flour particles, making lumping quite unlikely
Can be browned for additional flavor at the cost of thickening power

It also adds oil or butter to the recipe, which may or may not be an advantage.

Slurry Method

The advantages of the slurry method (which is what the second method is, although it is more typically done with water or stock than milk are):

It is fast and convenient, if you don't have roux prepared ahead
No oil or butter is required, so it doesn't have to be accounted for in the recipe.

Disadvantages:

It is easier to get lumping if you don't thoroughly whisk the slurry before heating
It must be brought to the boil for at least a couple of minutes to eliminate the raw flour taste, and harder to adjust thickness.
Harder to prepare ahead

Conclusion

Use whichever you are comfortable with.  For fine sauces, roux based may be superior (and certainly more buttery), but you can have excellent outcomes with a slurry.  For casual cooking , I tend to use a slurry, saving roux for more formal dinners and fancier dishes like Thanksgiving gravy.


The hydration of sourdough starters can vary ...50% to 125%.  Some are kept very stiff and others are kept quite liquid.  A higher hydration starter will need to be fed more frequently.  The hydration of your starter relates to how you will use the starter.  Also, knowing the hydration percent of your starter is important when calculating the hydration percent of your final dough.


Thicker gelatin layer at the bottom of the dish

If you pour jello into dishes while it is still very warm, the mixture has time to start layering and separating a bit, leaving the layer you describe on the bottom of the dish. In my experience, the best way to avoid it is to not pour the mixture into the dish/es until it is cooled to nearly room temperature and considerably thicker. While it's cooling, you can stir it periodically to prevent layering, and then it should set quickly enough that it won't separate.


What does baking time in oven depend on?

These are the things that popped up in my mind at first glance:

Volume

How bigger the thing, how longer it will take to be fully baked. This is the reason why you find such a difference in the baking times for banana bread and banana muffins.

Surface Area

The volume can be the same (ground surface x height), but the surface exposed to the heat can differ. If something is flatter, the center is more rapidly reached. If you would bake your bread in a normal bread mold, it would take a longer time than if you would flatten out a bread on a baking sheet (but note that the volume is the same).

Oven temperature

Something very obvious. If it's hotter, it won't have to bake as long. However, don't play too much with this. I would advice to use the temperature a recipe has recommended. If you put it too hot, the outer parts can burn, when the inner parts would not be baked fully.
This question is related.

Vessel Material

Some materials conduct heat better than others. As a consequence, some things will be faster done in metal than in glass for example. (But I believe this has a less important role than the other factors I've mentioned. I can't say much about it, since I don't know a lot about it.)


How can I stove-cook meals for groups of 6-8 with only one burner?

Generally, it is said that you should avoid pans which are not the same size as the burner. You are wasting energy in both the "smaller" and "bigger" case. Besides, as Jessica mentioned, you are wasting time and getting lower quality food with a larger pan, because you have to stir a lot, and still get unevenly heated food.

But if the alternative is to cook two batches in a fitting pan, I still think that you are saving electricity and time with the inefficient large pan. So I would stay with it.

I can also recommend buying more burners and an oven, if you are going to cook. A portable burner is very small and can be stuffed into a cabinet when not needed, to save counter space even in the tiniest kitchen. It can be cheap, or you can get an induction one for better quality heating and energy saving. A toaster oven is, in my experience, much more useful than a microwave. This will depend on the way you eat - if you frequently get frozen meals, the microwave is more convenient. I do all of my normal baking if a toaster oven, and it does everything, even complicated cakes, so if you are serious about cooking, it might be a better use of space than the mw.


I think rehydrating evenly is going to be very dicey. Instead, when you first open a large pack, immediately separate it into smaller batches, wrapping each tightly in wax paper and then a zip-loc removing as much air as possible, and re-freezing those smaller packs. Now you won't have to thaw and refreeze any sheets more than once - just grab the number of smaller packs you need. This should keep them in better condition.


Can my syrupy jelly be processed again to make it set, or do I need to start over?

You can use a chilled plate to test your batch before canning it next time. Pectin does not firms up with time, just temperature.

I would suspect that the watermelon juice has made your jelly too dilute, and you'll need to boil your jelly down further.


Why do some Parmigiano Reggiano contain bacterial cultures?

The bacterial cultures are what the document you quoted from refers to as "fermented whey".  The previous paragraph in the Specification of the Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese from the Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese Consortium
 web site reads as follows:

  Fermented whey is added to the milk, which is a natural culture of lactic ferments obtained from
  spontaneous acidification of the whey remaining from the cheese-making process of the previous
  day.

All Paramgiano Reggiano cheeses would have these bacterial cultures in them, not just the cheap ones.


Why was the cooking liquor for my mussels too dilute?

Yes, the additional liquid came from the mussels and is going to enhance the flavor of your finished dish.  All you need to do is remove the mussels to a bowl, cover lightly to keep them warm, and then turn the heat up to high on your pan and reduce the liquid until it's concentrated before whisking in your butter. (I presume you added butter even though you didn't list it above?)

If not...finish it by whisking in softened (not too soft, but slightly) butter (known as "mounting with butter"  monte au beurre) which will emulsify with the concentrated cooking liquid and add a luxurious texture and richness to your sauce.  Finish by adding your chopped parsley and adjust seasoning according to taste.


It depends on the damage to its layers.

This is the layout of a tetrapak container:

Now, obviously the container should not be considered safe if layers 1-3 are compromised. But small damage in layers 4-6 should not be considered invalidating.

Since the package is flexible, I don't think that slight crushing compromises any of the more important layers.


What is the difference in flavor between a fermented pickle and a vinegar pickle?

I've been fermenting for quite a while (everything from sauerkraut and kimchi to Indian-spiced grated carrots and kohlrabi spears with dill), and my two cents is that the flavor of fermented pickles is vastly (vastly!) superior to that of vinegar pickles. Fermented pickles are indeed fruitier and more complex. When I have the first taste of something I've just fermented for the first time, I'm almost always surprised and pleased to the point of involuntary smiling and "mmm"-ing. It's just pure joy.

Most importantly for me, fermented vegetables taste more like vegetables than those pickled in vinegar. With vinegar pickles, I now find the vinegar totally overpowering, even just when opening the jar. I feel like I'm eating processed food. Fermented vegetables taste closer to fresh.

Another fun thing is that fermented pickles continue to mature with time. I usually keep my ferments at room temperature for one to two weeks, then move them to the fridge. The cold slows the fermentation way, way down, but it doesn't stop it completely. If you make 5 pounds of sauerkraut and consume it slowly over, say, two months, you can bet that your last serving of it will taste quite different from your first. But it's always good.

It is absolutely worth the extra effort to go the fermented route. It's an adventure in deliciousness. Here's a site with some great recipe ideas: http://www.picklemetoo.com/recipes/.


How much does freezing grapes longer sweeten them more?

The time doesn't matter. What you need is a single freeze-thaw cycle. Once your grapes have been frozen solid, holding them frozen won't do anything more.

I get it that you are not happy with the results you got so far, but that is just because your freezing idea is not really suited to your situation. I have never tried eating thawed bananas, so don't know how large the effect is there, but the article states the two reasons for more sweetness: juices leaking out of cells, and amylase converting starch to sugars. First, grapes are a juicy fruit, unlike bananas, and you easily have access to their juice once you bite into them. Second, grapes have practically no starch.

The problem with your grapes are not that they are a mealy banana, it's that they are sour. The acid is not going anywhere when you freeze them, and you can't create more sugar out of nothing. They will stay the way they are, freezing or no.


Why does my English muffins package say to use a fork or fingers instead of a knife to open them?

If you cut it with a knife, you'll tend to get a very smooth surface. If you tear it open, whether by hand or with the aid of a fork, it'll tend to break on more natural places in the crumb, giving a bit rougher surface. When toasted, that tends to result in more contrast of texture - the bits sticking up will brown more and get crunchier.


Why does food taste bland when we are sick?

Smell.  Smell is a big portion of taste, and you likely had an upper-respiratory infection that blunted your sense of smell.


When do you hear the Ping sound of the lid sealing?

There's no real exact time it happens (at least in my kitchen).  I've had some jars that come out of the water with the lid depressed and others that take many hours.  By the next morning, they should be cooled with the lids depressed.  If they aren't, then they should be reprocessed or refrigerated to be eaten right away.  :)


Is there a "safe" way to cook ghost chili?

Dilute heavily by using a very small portion of peppers per dish
Allow cooking time for the pepper flavor to permeate the dish before adding more.  It's not like black pepper where the taste spreads instantly.
Remove the seeds and membranes holding them, as this reduces spiciness considerably
Cut peppers very finely or puree so there aren't any large pieces to deliver a shocker in the final dish
Wear gloves when handling the peppers
If you don't use gloves, wash your hands well before touching your eyes, mouth, or other "sensitive regions."
AND FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD AND HOLY, DO NOT FRY OR SAUTE THE PEPPERS.

No, seriously.  The last one is a mistake you only make once, and should be on a warning label with all store-bought chilis.  The capsaicin somehow becomes volatile when heated enough, and the result is like filling your entire domicile with pepper spray.

I am ashamed to say that the last two cautions are drawn purely from personal experience.  It's not the kind of "hot date" you want to share with an (un)lucky person, believe me.


Garlic oil; that is, oil directly from garlic is certainly a thing.  It is usually achieved using steam distillation.  I have read that the undiluted oil has about 900 times the strength of fresh garlic.  That's generally much more potent than any home cook or chef wants to deal with. For the vast majority of culinary applications, garlic is used to flavor oil.  Any oil will work, and the way the garlic is chopped (or not), as well as how it is heated (and how long) in the oil, will have significant impacts on the final result.


Foods other than onions that can be caramelized for a delicious result

Caramelized apples: http://www.seasaltwithfood.com/2010/10/french-toast-with-caramelized-apples.html or carrots: http://www.kayotic.nl/blog/caramelized-carrots-2 are delicious. Give them a go.


Yes, but not the time so much. The dish itself is not a good conductor of heat, like cast iron or other metal for example. And it allows radiant heat directly on what is being cooked. One thing I do is that I have a pizza stone in my oven that helps keep the oven temperature stable.

Another thing that is very common is that oven temperatures are notoriously inaccurate. So, it pays to use an oven thermometer in order to get accurate oven temps (instead of going by the oven temperature dial).

Here's another tip. Place a cookie sheet on the rack below the glass/pyrex baking dish. This keeps the radiant heat from the lower element from directly heating the dish.

I must say though, that the #1 thing that has improved my baking is the oven thermometer. The oven dial in my kitchen is off from 15 to 25 degrees. This is a tip I got from "On Food and Cooking" by Harold McGee. The second thing is the pizza stone that helps regulate the temperature. A standard oven cycles on and off to maintain the temperature.

All that being said, I'd use metal cookware for cake. But I do get good results when I wind up using glassware by controlling the oven temps.

Update I made brownies last night and noticed in Marion Cunningham's (The Fannie Farmer Cookbook) recipe this advice, "If you're using a Pyrex dish, place it on a baking sheet during baking". What that does is to act as a buffer between the heating elements and the dish.


How can I get gross, bloody stumps in my Halloween punch?

Part of the problem with trying to do this is that you have to select something that's going to stand up to the liquid.  I have a possible solution, but the problem is that the hand itself is going to deteiorate in the process.

Find a glove that's longer, so you have enough "wrist" to work with.
Insert two white plastic rods into the glove as the arm bones;  Trim to length so youcan still seal the glove.
Fill with blood orange juice (not always the easiest thing to come by; I have to go to an italian specialty market that imports it) or cherry jello.
Freeze
Trim the glove to expose the wrist & bones.

If you can't find longer gloves, it might still be possible to make an enclosure to hold the glove upright while it freezeds.  The problem is, you need to put enough pressure on the sides of the glove so that the palm doesn't balloon out too much. It might be easier to freeze the glove normally (with a weight on top to shape the palm), remove the glove, transfer it to a new one, drill to insert the 'bones', then freeze the 'wrist' portion in the new glove.

other notes :

it might be possible to add gelatin to the blood orange juice so it'll last longer; I don't know acidic the liquid can be for gelatin to still set.  (do not use agar; it won't work).
as an alternative to the plastic bones, the only other thing that I can think of (other than using real bone), would be a panna cotta (milk jello) but maybe use coconut milk as it's a brighter white).  But you want the bone to stay solid while the rest of the hand is deteriorating around it.
normally when you do this, the "hand" melts, but the glove still contains the liquid that was in it.  In this case, as the wrist is exposed, the liquid is going to slowly leak out.  For this reason, it might be good to fill the fingers with something solid (or test how quickly jello or similar hold up in liquids over time.


Substitute clarified butter with sunflower spread

"Spreads" are not an effective substitute for clarified butter for filo pastry, because they contain water and emulsifiers. The purpose of the clarified butter in filo pastry is to keep the layers separate, and water-containing spreads will encourage the layers to stick together. If you don't want to use butter, substitute vegetable shortening, like Crisco.


I like mine really smooth, so I make the whole thing in a food processor. You can use the "pulse" feature if you still want a little chunkiness, but if you want it really smooth, just process the heck out of it.

If you don't have a food processor, a blender may work too. If you have neither of those, you could try a very fine potato masher but that would be a lot of work.

For extra fanciness, I also like to top my serving bowl with a little pool of chilli oil to allow my guests to add spiciness if they wish.


How can I make Chinese Fried Rice like they do on the East Coast?

My fried rice started getting closer to east coast restaurant style when I started doing a couple of new things:

Use Chinese 5 Spice Powder - Like Indian Garam Masala, this is a spice mixture that is so common in Chinese cooking that it's sold pre-mixed. I've started using it in a lot of my chinese cooking. It makes a big difference.
Add a bit more soy sauce - This seems to be where most of your coloring comes from, so judge by look.
Use some sesame oil - I find sesame oil provides a nice flavor element in asian dishes.
Use more oil while frying the rice - I use a mix of sesame and vegetable or canola. This makes it quite a lot greasier than I was making it, but it's closer to restaurant style.
Let the rice sit  while frying - Once the rice is in the wok, I don't stir it too much. This lets some of the rice on the bottom get a bit more fried than if you stir frequently.

Hope one of those helps.


What substitutes work with a capsaicin allergy?

You could try other piperine containing types of peppers (Piper genus), these include P. longum (long pepper) and P. retrofractum, as well as white pepper P. nigrum, though any member of the Piper genus should contain some piperine, but amounts and hence spiciness will vary.

You could also try ginger (Zingiber genus), as well as mustard seeds and shoots/leaves (Sinapsis genus and Brassica juncea), all of which are objectively "hot", though also with different (and strong) flavours and heat levels.

Wikipedia also has a list of peppers under their Template:Herbs and Spices, which includes such things as Alligator pepper (Aframomum), Schinus genus, Sichuan pepper (Zanthoxylum), and a couple of others.


How long should I slow roast a large (7.5lb/3.5kg) chicken for?

That's the largest chicken I've ever heard of.

That said, 3 to 3.5 hours at 325℉ should be sufficient. Unfortunately time doesn't really matter when cooking chicken, but temperature. You should definitely be using a meat thermometer and cooking long enough for the breasts to reach 160℉ and the thighs 170℉.

If you don't have a thermometer the next best thing would be to poke the thigh when you think it's done and confirm that the juices run clear. If they are not clear, then it needs to be cooked longer.


Is there anything special about fugu meat?

According to an article about Fugu at Maldova Welcome:

  Some people who’ve tried puffer dishes describe it as one of the most
  sublime flavors in the world. Others, apparently less enthusiastic, or
  simply more objective, describe fugu meat as a cross between crunchy
  and chewy, said by the Japanese to go “shiko-shiko” in one’s mouth
  when absolutely fresh. That’s what some consider the main attraction
  of the risky meal. But taste isn’t everything. Many say that fugu is
  simply addictive!

According to YQ Travelling:  "Long answer: like rubber when raw but like silk when cooked."

At New York Food (in an indepth article), Adam Platt says:

  Hashimoto’s fugu indeed has a certain clean sashimi quality to it, and
  a resilient chewiness, but otherwise it’s a letdown. It tastes
  flavorless and gummy, like a cross between Reichl’s fluke and day-old
  squid.

  [ ... ]
  And then the tingling sensation begins. It starts on my lips and seems to be quickly tracking
  down the back of my throat. I put down my chopsticks and shift my legs
  under the table. I bring the tips of my fingers to my mouth and begin
  touching my lips in a tender, slightly agitated way, like a d
  dental patient shot full of Novocain.

  [ ... ]

  our next course, which is a little helping of deep-fried fugu ribs. The bony ribs (“These look
  like hamster ribs,” I tell Shinji) are hacked in little pieces, tossed
  in flour, and seasoned with sea salt and a sprinkling of the dried
  kelp called kombu. The ribs have the nice meaty texture of monkfish,
  they’re perfectly fried, and they’re delicious. (This may simply prove
  that anything tastes good fried, including bony, potentially fatal
  fish ribs.)

However, I suspect the popularity of fugu, especially in Japan is a complex amalgam of factors including:

Pride in cultural heritage, since this is a uniquely Japanese practice, although it is spreading
The enjoyment of the feeling of numbness that properly prepared fugu leaves in the mouth, from just the tiniest traces of the toxin
Popularity of extremely expensive items, which therefore must be special
The art of the presentation, which (as the dish is very expensive) is at its highest levels
Some people are crazy :-)


Which regions of the world prefer mustard in their mayonnaise?

The difference in Mayonnaise is varied. For example, in the USA Hellman's and Best Foods Mayonnaise (Same company by the way and same product) add sugar to reduce the acidity. Regional tastes are also taken into account by the manufacturers.

Hellman's mayo in Europe has different ingredient percentages than the same mayo uses for the American market. Many in North America find Duke's mayo to be superior in taste and use than Hellman's due to the ingredient mix. Hellman's mayonnaise in the USA does NOT contain mustard, but there is nothing stopping you from adding a dollop of Dijon in the mix if that's your desired taste.

As a side note, in Japanese cooking where mayonnaise is called for, the most common brand is Kewpie (available in Asian stores and Amazon). The primary difference is that Kewpie mayo only uses egg yolks and also rice vinegar instead of distilled vinegar. It can be used for any recipe that calls for mayo and has a really delightfully more bright taste that's a little different than other mayo's.

Kraft now also offers Avocado Oil Mayonnaise. Looks healthy until you read the whole list of ingredients. Ugh!

Whatever you choose, you can certainly modify to taste. Bon Appetit!


Can I swap sabji Masala for Tandoori Masala in this recipe?

Spice mixes tend to vary quite a lot from recipe to recipe. If you go to an Indian shop and compare a few brands of tandoori masala (or search online for different recipes) you'll probably notice that there are quite large differences in both the quantity and types of spices used. I've tried a few packaged tandoori masala and have tried a few recipes and they can definitely vary quite a bit in flavour. I'm sure the same is true of the sabji masala.

In all likelihood, most of the spices would be present in both mixes. Without knowing the specific spices used in your mixes, however, it's hard to say exactly what would be different. Some spices are quite distinctive - i.e. the sabji masala might have fenugreek leaves (kasoori methi) which have a pronounced flavour, but then again, some tandoori masalas also include it.

Whatever spices used, I think the tandoori masala will work fine in the recipe.


Not all French Presses are created equal; some have the obnoxious habit of getting creases at the edge of the filter, which lead to grounds coming up the sides. Other filters deteriorate more quickly.

My experience is that a fine metal mesh filter tends to last longer than nylon filters, and that I am always going to be unlucky when it comes to the French Press.

Inevitably, things fall apart. Replacing the filter will be needed at some point, though good care can help prevent it from going bad. There are really two ways to look at the investment of the French Press:

You're buying a cheap one with the expectation that it'll last only 6 months to a year.
You spend a little more, and perhaps have to replace a part once in a while.

My suggestion is to buy a mid-priced Bodum press; replacement parts are available and relatively affordable, and their products are decent enough to be used in restaurants around the world. Either way, you're spending less than on a decent drip brewer, and getting a better cup of coffee for your efforts.


Does marinating fish actually help the spices get in its flesh?

Yes, marinating, or letting sit with a rub (which is what you're doing) does help fish flavor.

However, for most fish, there's no point in marinating filets or steaks "for hours", since fish flesh is very porous and spices, acids, oils and other flavorings achieve maximum penetration in less than an hour.  The exception to this is dense-fleshed fish, such as swordfish, tuna, and opah, which can be marinated for longer -- up to 8 hours.  Also, if you're applying a rub to whole, skin-on fish, you do want to wait an hour for the spices to "soak in".

The other exception is salt.  There are recipes where you want to salt fish, and let it sit and drain for between 2 and 8 hours to firm up the flesh or change the flavor.

The above is paraphrased and summarized from Jay Harlow's West Coast Fish, and confirmed by my own experience.


Safe to switch from warm to high on poultry in crock pot

Warm not low? I would toss. Chances are you had high levels of pathogens before switching to high and not all toxins from bacteria are destroyed by heat.


I think what people often don't realize about many Thai curry pastes is what is not in them and this applies particularly to the main brands of imported Thai sauces like Mae Ploy for example. Let's take the Panang paste, this should have quite a pronounced peanut taste but if you check the label you will will search in vain for peanuts; fish sauce so essential to a Thai curry also missing. Why? The answer lies in the way these pastes are prepared on the production line. The ingredients are mixed and ground but then instead of being cooked in the conventional sense of the word they are instead pasteurized. This is a fast convenient process. The problem lies in the fact that there are certain ingredients that you can't use this process on, peanuts and fish sauce being among them. They use salt (a lot of it) to try to replace the saltiness of fish sauce but this lacks the aromatic factor that fish sauce provides. This can make it difficult for the cook to add fish sauce to the dish as it is already quite salty. Also although you may see shrimp paste on the label they are being a little disingenuous here; it is not Thai shrimp paste as we think of it but rather shrimp powder, I suppose if you mix it with some of the ingredients you can get away with calling it a shrimp paste. A poor imitation of the real thing though.

So onto the fact that your Panang curry doesn't taste like a Panang curry you eat in your local Thai restaurant. Well you might be surprised to learn they probably use the same paste as you do! What, you think they make their own pastes? Almost never. Yes there are exceptions, Pok Pok restaurants in the US being a good example with chef Andy Rikker describing the commercial pastes as "horrible" but for the most part many Thai restaurants will use them.

When you see a Thai person pushing their trolley around an Asian cash n' carry that is loaded up with industrial sized tubs of curry paste you can be reasonably sure they are not just stocking up their home pantry in case of a coming Armageddon.
They then customize the sauce for use in the restaurant, in this case maybe ground peanuts or often peanut butter, a lot of sugar so they can then add Thai fish sauce without it tasting overwhelmingly salty. Maybe chop some coriander stems in to disguise the fact that only coriander seed is used in the commercial paste instead of coriander root.Depends on the restaurant, they all have their own methods.
There are also some supermarket brand pastes that may well use peanuts as they use a method more akin to pressure canning, these are generally rather insipid concoctions though and best avoided.

So if you want to try making your curry taste more like one you had in a restaurant that is how you do it if you can't get the fresh ingredients to do it yourself. Also if you google "mythaicurry" you can buy pastes online that are cooked by more traditional methods and are far more authentic and will most likely surpass anything you have ever had in a Thai restaurant. They also have a good section on how to cook with coconut milk.

I'm a chef and worked in the development kitchens of some major food producers hence my knowledge of the techniques and limitations of commercial food production.


Does anybody recognize this Finnish dill sauce?

A very common fish condiment in Sweden is "dillsås", dill sauce.

10 oz gräddfil. A light sour cream. (yoghurt?)
A few tablespoons of mayo
A generous amount of chopped dill.
Season with salt and white pepper to taste.

You can add some mustard and lemon if the mayo is bland.

The taste is smooth and quite neutral with the dill as the lead actor.

A note on the sour cream. It can't be a thick, heavy consistency. It should be quite light and slightly uneven in texture (whisking makes it smooth). It is almost yoghurt like and contains about 10% fat.  I have seen suggestions that low fat sour cream can be quite similar. I get the impression IKEA stocks it globally.

It should look something like

Image from http://chezsofia.bloggsida.se/2009/08/dillsas-till-saftiga-grillspett/.


Storage of partially used jar of mustard?

Mustard often separates, it doesn't mean it's going bad. It's likely perfectly fine, mustard stays good for years in the refrigerator. Just stir it up before using it to recombine.

As for why it doesn't separate unopened, sometimes it does. Often you are buying a product that's been manufactured recently, so it hasn't had time to separate yet.


How is baking bread in a ceramic pan different from using a metal one?

The difference is in the conductivity of the materials with the glass being less conductive than metal.

If the center isn't done...simply add more time.  Worried about the top browning too much..cover with foil for the additional amount of time.  OR cook at a slightly lower temperature for a longer time.

ALSO...check the temperature of your oven.  Just because you set the dial to 350˚F doesn't mean that it is accurate!  Buy a small oven thermometer and check the temperature.  If it is off look at the instruction manual for your oven to see if you can calibrate the oven.  If not...allow for the temperature difference by turning up (or down) the oven to get the proper temperature!  (This is much cheaper than a service call.)


It REALLY depends on the recipe you are using.
Lots of salad dressings contain either dairy or oil and neither of these can be safely waterbathed OR pressure canned.

Something like a seasoned vinegar might be okay though however I am unable to give advice on how to process that safely.

check http://nchfp.uga.edu/ for guidelines and safe processes and recipes (their search feature on their website is pretty good)


Does a liquid need to cool under pressure in a whipped cream charger prior to serving or just be cold?

It depends on the preparation.

I have the Creative Whip which comes with a little recipe book and not all of the recipes demand that you chill after charging.  For example the "instant chocolate mousse" is really instant.  The only liquid ingredient is the cream itself which is already chilled, and the gas expansion inside the canister chills it even further, so it's ready right away.

On the other hand, if you're making something with gelatin, carrageenan, or any other gelling agent which needs to set, then you'll obviously need to fill the canister while it's still a liquid (otherwise it's going to be rather hard to whip, not to mention hard to get into the canister itself!) and then chill to set it.

Basically it's simply a question of how cold your liquid is before it goes into the canister vs. how cold you want it to be when you serve it.  If you can chill it to the correct temperature beforehand, and that won't prevent you from whipping it (as it would with an actual gel), then by all means chill first.

In the specific case when you're using creams and/or cheeses to make a mousse or espuma, you almost never need to chill it in the whipper itself - although it won't hurt either.

By the way, if you're making a gel or anything else that needs to set, it's best to chill it gradually in an ice water bath and shake it frequently as it chills, in order to keep the gas dispersed.  If you just charge it and stick it in the fridge, you may find it very hard to dispense afterward.


Why have all of my quality pans started smoking at once?

It is possible you have some soap or oil film from the washing process that has not been cleared off these pots and pans.  From what I read, all of them have been washed at least once.  I suggest the following steps:

Replace your dish washing sponge with a new one and wash the pans properly by hand and and rinse them thoroughly under running hot water.  If you see any suds anywhere, rinse more (dish soap is carcinogenic).  Don't place them in the dishwasher (at least for now).
If you're going to Target buy a new pan, buy a heavy bottom Stainless Steel one (they are better for cooking anyway).
Pour 1/2 inch of water in a pan or pot.  If you see a film or any funny color on the water surface, wash and rinse again.
Turn the heat to medium and wait for smoke (if any).  Oil smoke is usually thicker, and heavier whereas soap smoke seems (to me at least) lighter and ghosty.


Substitute maple syrup with regular syrup for baking?

You can definitely use regular (if you mean regular is in Betty Crocker and the like) as a replacement for Maple Syrup in this recipe. The flavor won't be quite as nice because you'll be missing the maple flavor, but it will definitely have the sweetness you want.


Can I use Star San "no rinse" for sanitizing canning tools and utensils?

No rinse sanitizer like Star San works great for sanitizing canning tools & jars. The sanitary considerations for canning and beer have quite a bit in common, so for the most part, if you sanitize things like you're bottling, you'll be in great shape.
Except...
You'll still want to follow the instructions to simmer your flat lids. The rubber seal on the lid needs the heat to "activate" in order for it to be appropriately soft to create a good seal between the lid & jar.
Edit
I just grabbed a package of lids to check the instructions, and they appear to have changed to no longer recommend / require the hot water simmering prep. A quick internet suggests this changed about 5 years ago. Who knew?!
I've been  continuing to simmer the lids for about 5 minutes before canning--and probably will keep doing so out of habit. However, it would seem that based on the package directions, you just need to sanitize, not heat. So Star San should do the trick for the lids as well!


Can I "fill" a chicken pot pie 24 hours before cooking it?

Absolutely not. As the other poster said but I will say with no "I think", I will say I know it will ruin the pastry.  You will end up with a gummy crust that will never give you the flaky texture that pie doughs are famous for. It would probably also leave you with a somewhat dry filling as much of the liquid would then be in the crust.


Like in all things: IT DEPENDS and always try to buy the freshest seafood as possible and consume ASAP.

Fish, depending on the fishmonger, sometimes I will rinse a whole fish it if there is blood or innards still in there; I will make certain after to dry it out completely before using.

For filets and portioned fish or shelled shrimps, no, i will only dry it out.

For shellfish like mussels, clams, I will rinse them and let them soak in cold salted water (I never tried the corn meal trick, google it).

For raw unshelled shrimps, I will clean them out and rinse after.

For your question about Ceviche, I will use the above guide (my own) to prepare the fish before cutting and marinating.


How to salvage hardened peanut butter from jar bottom

As long as the peanut paste at the bottom of the jar hasn't gone rancid, I'm pretty sure the bottom of the jar gets hardened and dry because the peanut solids have sunk to the bottom while the peanut oil has floated to the top, and as you use the peanut butter, a deficit of peanut oil develops at the bottom of the jar. I usually try to keep re-mixing the jar as I use it, so I haven't really tried this, but I'll bet if you stir in a little peanut oil, that dry peanut-plaster would soften up and become like its old self again.


How is this non-dairy creamer really non-dairy when it has sodium caseinate?

Title 21 (Food and Drugs) of the Code of Federal Regulation states

  "(d) When foods characterized on the label as "nondairy" contain a
  caseinate ingredient, the caseinate ingredient shall be followed by a
  parenthetical statement identifying its source. For example, if the
  manufacturer uses the term "nondairy" on a creamer that contains
  sodium caseinate, it shall include a parenthetical term such as "a
  milk derivative" after the listing of sodium caseinate in the
  ingredient list"

According to this page on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's website, the term "non-dairy" is actually a by-product of the dairy lobby's efforts to make sure that substitute milk and cream products could not use the term dairy rather than the FDA trying to specify that something didn't contain any dairy.


How should I boil green beans to keep them crisp?

You shouldn't cook more than a few minutes, and should cool them as quickly as possible afterwards.  Ideally, you'll be blanching them, and here's how:

Bring a pot of water with a pinch of salt in it to a roiling boil
Dump beans in, and cook for a few minutes
Check that beans are fully cooked (time will vary by variety and ripeness of beans)
Strain beans, and IMMEDIATELY transfer to an prepared ice water bath to cool as fast as possible

This ensures beans are precisely cooked, but do not have a chance to over-cook, and using the ice water helps them retain color and flavor.

It's how we get deliciously crisp haricot vert (French green beans) at the restaurant I work for. Note that cooking times and crispness will also vary based on the variety and age at which the beans were picked.


Vacuum-packed cheese question (botulism)

No, there's no risk. Cheese has too much salt and acidity to harbor botulism even at room temperature; there's practically no chance of it growing in the refrigerator even with low-acid food, and literally zero chance of it growing in the freezer on any food.

I don't think data is publicly available on individual botulism cases in the U.S. or worldwide, but aside from honey-related infant botulism, the vast majority of cases are reputed to be from improper home canning of low-acid foods (garlic, peppers, etc.), and that number is still very small. I don't think I've ever heard of a single case related to cheese.

Seriously, stop worrying about botulism unless you are either (a) caring for an infant or (b) canning your own foods at home.


Yes, vacuum sealed beef is 'wet aged,' which produces a cheaper though inferior product to dry aging.

You can age yourself at home, you just need decent climate control, and the knowledge to know the difference between good aging and bad critters infesting your meat.Bear in mind also that there is significant loss in dry aging, as you have to cut off the outside of the meat.


I'm not sure I see any major benefit in creaming the sugar with the egg yolk here.  And it's not going to produce a "creamy" texture in your batter: beating yolks with sugar is generally about lightness and/or to ensure eggs don't "clump" when cooked.  You will achieve both of those goals more effectively by (1) beating the egg whites, and (2) thoroughly mixing the egg yolk into the other liquid ingredients.

Most pancake recipes use the so-called "muffin method" of combining ingredients:

mix together all wet ingredients in one bowl
mix together all dry ingredients in another bowl
make a "well" in the middle of the dry ingredients to maximize surface contact when you pour the wet into the dry
add wet ingredients to dry ingredients all at once
whisk just briefly until the ingredients are barely combined and still often a little "lumpy" (this avoids gluten formation and toughness which can happen with more beating, as well as preserving a few "lumps" of leavening powder in some cases where moisture is the main activator for rising)
if the eggs are separated and the whites beaten for extra lift, the whites are folded in gently and quickly at the end

I have used variations of this sort of method for many pancake recipes.  I generally just add the (beaten) egg yolk to the rest of the wet ingredients.

If you were making a sabayon (zabaglione), you usually whip the egg yolks with sugar until the ribbon stage (or past) by introducing heat, which greatly speeds up the process and allows the sugar to dissolve more thoroughly.  But the point generally isn't to dissolve the sugar; it's to break up the egg so it won't be grainy when cooked.  It also creates a relatively stable mixture -- when you suddenly add a bunch of liquid to it (as in your recipe), it will break up and you'll likely lose quite a bit of "lift."

It's true that beating can add some lightness to the yolk mixture, but in the case of something like pancakes, I can't imagine this will produce a significant effect once the yolks are combined with the rest of the wet ingredients and then mixed into the batter.  Beating the egg whites for a few minutes will have a much, much greater effect on the lightness of your pancakes than if you whipped your yolks for an hour.  (If you had a recipe which had a significant amount of yolks, I suppose it might be justified in some cases.)

Lastly, I've never personally had a problem with sugar dissolving in pancake batter.  But if that's your problem -- I'd think dissolving the sugar in a larger quantity of liquid (e.g., the milk) will be more effective than creaming it with a tiny amount of egg yolk.

You also mention butter cakes.  Almost all butter cake recipes I can recall usually involve creaming the butter with the sugar and then adding eggs (whole eggs or just yolks).  That's a very different process than what you're doing here.  In the case of butter cakes, you generally want to cream the butter and sugar until it's no longer grainy -- even before adding eggs.  So I'm not really certain what the problem might be there.


Homemade Corn Tortillas: How to get the back side cooked the same as the face?

Flipping twice works pretty well. Cook on the first side until that side is mostly cooked but definitely not finished (the top side should still be damp and uncooked), then flip it and cook until done on the other side, then flip one more time to finish the first side. This will likely decrease the total cooking time slightly, so expect more like 15-20 seconds on each side between flips.

If you still have trouble, you might not have the heat high enough; at a lower temperature, you're likely to cook the tortilla through and dry it out too much before you flip it, which means the other side won't rest smoothly against the pan, which definitely causes the uneven cooking you're describing. But 15-20 seconds sounds about right to me, so I'm guessing you'll be fine. (Flipping only once causes problems in the same way.)

If you really want it perfect, you could try flipping even more times, but twice has always worked pretty well for me.


Aiding the Maillard reaction: Baking Powder or Baking Soda?

You want to use baking soda. Baking powder is used as a leavening agent and does this by combining an acid and a base, so it would not make your chicken more alkaline. Baking soda, on the other hand is just sodium bicarbonate and will make your chicken more alkaline.

However, baking soda, especially if used in excessive amounts, will give your chicken a bad taste. Baking soda tastes bitter, and cooking it for too long at high heat exacerbates that.

From reading online, it seems that adding baking soda will indeed make your chicken look much browner (the same way that pretzels are dipped in lye to produce their brown colour), but it would affect the texture/taste of your chicken.

If you want to add more flavour, I would think that properly browning the chicken (using high heat, having patience) would be more effective than adding baking soda, which might give the appearance, but not the taste.


What to use instead of cling film to wrap pastry

It is less useful than what you think

Frame challenge incoming...

Cling film is very light and made especially for such purposes. The environmental damage is extremely low - which limits what alternatives you can choose. Most alternatives (including those already mentioned in the other answers) will be so much more resource demanding to make, dispose or recycle for it to be worth it. Baking paper, while extremely useful - is full of silicones, so don't put it in the "paper" bin... and it is more resource demanding to make. Teflon, cloth, etc - same deal!

Aluminium foil, for instance. 75% of all Aluminium refined and made is still in use. Because of the extremely friendly "recyclability" of aluminium, it is a very good material. Just not for aluminium foil, it is rarely recycled. People just throw it in the trash. We destroy a valuable resource.

Cling film, on the other hand is  dirt cheap to make and can safely be incinerated. If you worry about polluting the sea - I'd see if there are any alternatives to landfilling your waste in your community. As for carbon emissions - Walk once to the store instead of driving, and you'll be in the green even if you consider a life time supply of cling film.

Note: Some cling films are made with PVC, I'd consider switching to the less clingy, but better overall alternative LDPE. PVC contains chlorides and while the environmental impact is still low, if you go for LDPE or similar it goes to negligible. Check the box it came in to find which you have


What went wrong with my yuzu cheesecake?

Given that you were using bottled 100% yuzu juice (assuming this is what you bought), which although not as flavorsome as fresh yuzu, still tastes generally similar, I would say the 'disappointment' comes from how it was used.

When I have had yuzu based desserts they have nearly always used a yuzu syrup or jam or yuzu honey, giving a more jammy, sweet taste akin to marmalade but with a the indescribable, heady complexity of yuzu.

Try mixing the juice with an equal quantity of sugar, and simmering until you have a runny syrup. I believe this will have the flavour you are looking for.

You can then use this syrup in many different ways e.g. cocktails, added to a cup of hot water to make yuzu tea, over ice cream etc.


Is it safe to use lye-based oven cleaner on a stainless steel pan?

Firstly, there should be no need to season a stainless clad pan. Stainless pans are generally kept pristine, with any oil residue scrubbed off after use. Seasoning is done on cast iron and carbon steel (which is black and looks like thin cast iron). I'm not aware of any guidance that suggests seasoning stainless steel in the same way cast iron is.
Oven cleaner is essentially just lye, mixed into a form factor to make it a spray on foamy cleaner. Lye is a strong base (the opposite of a strong acid), and can be similarly caustic and harsh on surfaces. This article outlines the damage that can be caused by it on certain stainless steel surfaces. It also contains guidance directly from the manufacturer of the Easy-Off brand that it's designed to be safe for stainless steel inside the oven (such as the oven racks), and not for other stainless steel surfaces.
Serious Eats has a recommendation to use oven cleaner as a last resort after using other cleaners and scrubbing for the bottom & exterior of a stainless pan. I would not use oven cleaner on the interior cooking surface of a stainless steel pan.


How to clean burnt food from an unglazed tagine

You might try cooking it loose.  Heat it up with plain water inside, even to boiling, and the combination of heat and soaking should loosen everything and make it easier to scrub out - especially if you scrape the bottom and stir occasionally as it boils.

Baking soda might help, sure - you might try hot vinegar and baking soda, boil vinegar and water, add baking soda, and let soak for a few hours.  Or you might try a baking soda paste, leave on stubborn stains a while and try cleaning afterwards.  Both possibilities are used for cleaning burnt food on pots, but it should also work for a tagine - I found one example of simmering hot water and baking soda in the tagine, which is another option.

Steel wool should be fine, though if you are worried about wear on the bottom of your tagine you can plan to use it infrequently, only for serious messes.  Clay is pretty hard stuff, so it shouldn't actually be a problem (I use steel wool on my tagine, and the unglazed portions don't show any wear), but if you are worried just remember to scrub gently and let the abrasion slowly wear the residue away, instead of scrubbing hard.  Other brushes and scrubbers should also be fine, though you might want long handles or heat resistance if you're going to pair scrubbing with simmering the residue soft.

Also, from what I've read, unglazed tagines are supposed to be seasoned with oil - not quite like cast iron, it involves soaking thoroughly, coating with oil, and heating at a low heat so the evaporation of the water pulls the oil into the pores of the clay.  If your tagine was seasoned, it should be able to stand surface washing with soapy water - the danger is if the soap soaks into the pores of the clay, which an oil seasoning should prevent, especially if it's a brief wash not a prolonged soak and you rinse well.  Up to you if you want to risk it or not, but it might help.

As a side note, there's nothing wrong with soaking a tagine...seasoning one requires prolonged soaking, in fact, and many sites suggest it for stubborn cleaning.  I'm not sure what was said to GdD, but I've never heard anything against soaking.


What are these small long narrow yellow things?

They are fried chickpea noodles called "sev".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sev_(food)

Usually they are added to street food snacks such as bhel puri and pani puri, for example see what a nice look they add to this panipuri
http://food4yourmood.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/pani-puri.jpg

I usually buy them in Indian grocery stores, though I would think it's also possible to dry roast wheat vermicelli as a substitute.


A few possibilities, hard to say given the amount of detail:

you didn't blend the mixture smooth enough, so you have ice crystals from the water in small pieces of fruit that were left
you didn't churn it long enough, so when it finished freezing in the freezer, it developed larger ice crystals, while if it'd been churned longer they'd have been smaller
your recipe has too little sugar (too much fruit/water, including what was in the syrup), so it was never going to work out

See also What determines whether a sherbet will set or not? and Is there a magic ingredient that keeps ice-cream soft?, among many other past questions on soft sorbet/sherbet/ice cream.


This recipe list chili powder as:

2 tablespoons paprika
2 teaspoons oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
3/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste (optional)

There are other mixtures, but this one seem basic enough. The "heat" comes from the cayenne pepper. The other spices round out the flavor.

So I'd mix everything but the cayenne pepper and use that mixture to cut your present chili powder.


Can I replace pine nuts with other nuts in a pesto sauce recipe?

First, I'm assuming by "pesto" you mean "Pesto alla Genovese", given your question about pine nuts.  Basil, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil, and cheese is a delicious combination, but it's only one of many "pestos" (peste, actually), since pesto refers in general to any sauce which is made from crushed or pureed ingredients.  Mix and match to your heart's content.

Walnuts are actually a traditional alternative to pine nuts for Pesto alla Genovese; pine nuts have always been scarce, even in early-20th-century Italy.  As a caution, though, you need to get good, fresh walnuts and make sure to get all of the skin off the nuts, or the pesto will taste bitter and rancid.

Almonds could also work, although I'd think they'd be rather bland.  The herb pastes which traditionally have crushed almonds -- such as Romanesco sauce -- include some hot pepper.  Again, freshness and getting the skin off is important.

I'd think sunflower seeds would be kind of odd and oily, but you don't know until you try.  If you do, post a comment to let us know!


The higher the temperature the faster the drying but also the more damage will be done to the food. As high as 140 and it is being cooked. For something like pineapple this is fine but for delicate things like basil that is not ok.

If you live in a dry climate the heater might not be necessary at all but it will save time.

I don't know exactly why your pineapple didn't turn out but here are a couple notes:

1- Things that are thick or very moist take much longer than usual. 6 hours is not a long time. Obviously pineapple is both. Try letting it go overnight.

2- Really really sugary things are so hygroscopic that they have a hard time drying completely and staying dried.

3- Commercial dried fruits are usually candied and chemically altered before being dried in equipment that I can't reproduce. This shouldn't discourage you by any means but don't expect your product to always be exactly like commercial dried fruit.


Frankly, I'd be too lazy to fiddle with a "separating wall" shell - partly because unless very well supported its likely to collapse during blind baking anyway.

My tool of choice would be a small cake ring or, in a pinch, a strip of aluminum foil, folded a few times and shaped into a circle.

Place the ring on the prebaked shell, pour the fillings into the inner and outer compartment. Then you have two choices:

Place the pie in the oven, carefully lift the separating ring, bake. The key is that the pie shouldn't be moved after you took out the separation. (Unless you are ok with some "merging"). This is the method I'd choose.
Bake the pie with the ring in place, remove just before it sets. This will give you a clearer separation, but may leave you with a "scar" on the pie. And depending on your filling, it might stick to the ring.

As for the fillings, I recommend that you put the "less runny" one in first, that will prevent a more liquid filling from "creeping under" the ring too much. For very liquid fillings, you might have to hold the ring down a bit, but don't "cut through" the shell!

Finally, note that geometry plays a role: if you use equal parts of fillings, the outer ring will seem narrower than the inner circle.

For equal amounts of filling, the diameter of the inner circle should be 70% of the whole diameter.
Alternatively, you could use 1/4 + 3/4 of a recipe to get an inner circle that's half the diameter of the outer.
For every other case, do the math yourself, remembering that the area of a circle is Pi times radius2. Or that the area grows squared - twice the radius means four times the area or volume. (Height can be ignored, if we assume that this should remain the same.)
The hacky solution would be to bake two pies and swap the position of the fillings - no math, no need to find or craft a specific ring size. And possibly a nice gift for a friend or neighbor.


What does it mean when an egg splatters and the white is greenish-yellow?

From The Splendid Table:

Older eggs (which are still safe to eat) tend to be more alkaline, which encourages a green reaction similar to that green ring you can get around a hard-cooked egg yolk. The green is harmless, but pretty much inevitable in older eggs.

From Quora:

If the yolk is breaking easily then the eggs are either older eggs or lower grade eggs. The highest grade eggs is AA which not only looks at shell quality, but also the yolk quality. AA eggs should have a tall firm yolk. Over time the yolk becomes less firm and resilient causing breaking when it's cracked. Just because the yolk is breaking doesn't mean the egg is no good, just lower quality.

Conclusion:
As long as the egg doesn't smell, it should be safe to eat, making sure to cook it thoroughly instead of leaving some parts liquid.


Chocolate mousse turned to scrambled eggs in cream

Did the recipe include a "tempering" step where you add a small stream of the hot liquid to the eggs while beating them, before adding the egg mixture to the hot bowl? If not, it should have - if so, did you actually do that? Many new cooks see something like that and figure it's pointless, so they just dump the eggs in - but it's not pointless. A poor recipe writer might assume that you'd know to do that without explicitly mentioning the step. Either would cause problems.

For something like this, you can actually add the whole of the hot mixture to the eggs, slowly, while beating, and then transfer back to the pot for further cooking.

If refrigerated post-disaster, it should be safe to eat. Add more eggs and have creamy scrambled eggs, or a lumpy omelet.


Food safety experts and government organizations target their recommendations to what's safest for everyone, and would recommend against this. However, "safe" is a subjective term. It's all about managing risk levels. The odds of a given egg containing salmonella or other food-borne illness are pretty low. A healthy adult with a normal immune system can probably fend off any nasties, or at least recover from illness.

The source of the eggs has an effect on the risk levels as well, I believe. Organic free-range eggs are probably less risky than supermarket brands.


What features should I consider when getting an ice cream or gelato machine?

You covered the big differences. Everything else is going to be brand and manufacturing quality.

My opinion on the different types:

For small amounts and small budgets I really like my cuisinart with the prefrozen bowl. The bowl gets so cold in my chest freezer that I don't even have to take the time to chill my mixture if I'm in a hurry. It always has plenty of cold leftover.

The ice/salt type either hand cranked (that's what kids are for) or electric are nice if you need to make batches back to back. You can obviously refill them instead of refreezing a bowl.

I don't have experience with the self refrigerating variety as they are out of my budget for the occasional homemade ice cream.


From what I can tell from the picture, most of the white stuff is flour; it was likely like that when you bought it, but only you & your memory know for sure. The non-bread & non-white occasional spots in the picture appear to be the olives.

Overall, unless you spot obvious mold, which is more often green than white, I think you are OK to consume it. But it's nearly a week past its date, so I'd consume it soon.


Xanthan gum if you don't want to modify the flavour.

Or

Boil in heavy sugar syrup if you don't mind sweetening the sauce significantly.

Personally I'd do both, I imagine what you've created it BlackBerry juice without much flavour. I'd first start by boiling the berries in some sugar untill much of the water had evaporated and tasted exactly how I wanted (intense BlackBerry flavour) then if it required use a little xanthan gum to get the right consistency.


Can I substitute mint tea for fresh mint?

I have always wondered how in anglosaxon speaking countries, people think that "mint" is always the same as "mint", just because it has the same name. In fact, spearmint tastes as different from peppermint as thymian from oregano. Almost all cooking recipes I know of are meant for spearmint, except for some sweet applications. All mint tea I have encountered is made from peppermint, not from spearmint. So while you can use dried spearmint instead of fresh mint, using mint tea is a bad idea, unless yours happens to be an exception made from spearmint.

You could try finding out if a herbs seller has dried spearmint, but you must remember that it has less aroma than fresh spearmint. Also, dried mint does approximate the aroma of the fresh one when used as a herb, but when used in big quantities (you mention 1 cup) as a vegetable on its own right, the substitution is much more problematic, because juiciness and texture are much more different.

I don't know about the situation where you live, but spearmint isn't used much in Western countries, except maybe England, so it is seldom available at supermarkets and costs a lot there. A better source are Turkish grocery shops, where it is as common as parsley, and the price is comparable. If there are Turkish shops nearby, it is definitely worth trying to find it there.

For a longer term solution, it might be a good idea to grow your own spearmint in pots. The plant is quite unassuming and easy to care for, and a kitchen which smells of fragrant herbs is nicer than one which smells of frying grease or cleaning products.


Why does water color go red when you boil maizes or lentils? Is it bad?

This is probably due to anthocyanins present in the maize and lentils. Despite the possibly worrying sounding 'cyanin', anthocyanins are antioxidants and if anything, beneficial to one's diet. Anyway the amount of anthocyanins present in maize is far far less than in say red cabbage (see the table in the Wikipedia article), so I think you have nothing to worry about.


Chili with bitter aftertaste and not enough kick

I've never known cayenne pepper to have any flavor, so if it is bitter you may have a bad batch, or the brand you are using may have put in additives that give it a bitter flavor. You may have other sources of bitterness:

beer: brewers add hops to beer to give it bitterness, and some beer is more bitter than others, it depends on which type you chose
Tomato paste: this can have a bitter taste if it is not fried off. If you add it directly to liquid it often adds bitterness to a dish
Kidney beans: I've always found that canned kidney beans have a bitter taste, even if rinsed

So there's other ways you could get bitter chili. I'd balance it out by adding some sugar or honey plus maybe a bit of lemon juice or tamarind paste.


Premade blends

If you're trying to buy something premade, look for blends without filler ingredients. For example, if you see sugar or salt as the first ingredient, that's a bad sign. Sometimes you'll also see large amounts of garlic or onion powder. Yes, you may often want salt and even sugar in your rubs, but you'll probably be happier adding them yourselves than paying a dollar an ounce for them.

It's also a great sign if they list all the ingredients, not just "spices".

And of course, you want it to not be old, since ground spices lose potency over time, but that's hard to tell without opening it. You may be able to get a sense for decent brands, or know that your store replenishes stock frequently so it hasn't sat on the shelf forever.

Beyond that, it's mostly up to your preferences. You'll just have to learn what spices you tend to like. It can be the highest quality in the world but if you don't like the spices, you won't like the rub. Keep in mind that different things do taste better with different meats; if you want a starting place, look for recipes with that meat, and then look for premade rubs with similar ingredients.

If you can't find anything you like in your own grocery stores, but still want to look for premade, don't give up. Just start looking toward smaller producers. Sure, they may not be in your grocery store, but there may be some great local places, and a lot of them have online presence now so you can use other people's local places too!

Just to give you the spirit of the idea... Your profile says you're in Chicago - I've heard of The Spice House there (since they also sell online), and they do seem to have some rubs. I don't know if enough good barbecue has made it up there, but if you can find any barbecue restaurants that sell rubs, that could be a good bet too. (I ate at this place last time I was back home in Texas and they even sell some seasonings online. Haven't tried them, but the barbecue was certainly good!)

Making your own

This is really an incredibly broad question, as you can see from the breadth of recipes you'll find if you search for recipes for rubs. There are really no "base ingredients" that make a rub good. As with premade things, your spice preferences will be personal, and depend on what you're using it on too.

But all that is really good news. You can find tons and tons of recipes online; trying a few and seeing what kinds of things you like will get you pretty far. In particular, if you grind your own spices, basically everything will be awesome, and your favorites will be down to personal preference. So we can't really tell you which ones you'll like best, but you can start to find out, and if you're grinding up single batches, you won't be wasting much along the way.


The only safe thing to do is to throw it away. Preferably with a bottle or jar it is in, if you don't care for it. If you want to keep that jar, use dishwasher on it's hottest setting. I would also use sanitizers, but I have them readily available in my kitchen due to beer brewing. You can probably go without them.

Seriously, mold is really hard to get rid of, and it will get on other things in your fridge quite happily if you let it. Get rid of it as soon as possible.

To address what you didn't ask but probably should have, if spoil problems are common in your kitchen, it's time to clean it thoroughly, and then use some no-rinse sanitizers on it. Mold spores can stay in what appears a clean kitchen, too. And it never hurts to sanitize your fermentation jar and tools you use. Better safe than sorry! And it wouldn't be nice to have more failures.


Dried anchovies are common as snacks in Japan and Korea. As a snacks, there must be preprocessing (heating and drying in big machines) to make them soft and dry, so we can eat the bone.:P

And dried anchovies as snacks are also quite easy to find as snacks and with many flavours:
http://www.maangchi.com/ingredient/dried-anchovies-myulchi

There are also kind of Salted fish common in South China, or Hong Kong, which is sun-dried for weeks or month after salting them. Large fish would be used and would cook before serving/ eating, and is usually used to boost the taste of another dish, and seldom just eat it alone cause it is too salty. While these Salted fish could be self made, and cook it after salted.
Different from dried anchovies, which should be cooked and dried as a snacks


When and why would one infuse flavor into sugar for baking?

Adding herbs directly to baked goods usually results in very strong flavours. Infusing the sugar with the herbs gives a more subtle overtone rather than a full-on explosion. In some cases, of course, you might want a strong herb flavour, but where you just want a hint, infusing the sugar is great. The classic example is using stripped vanilla pods to make vanilla sugar, which adds subtle vanilla tones to cakes and meringues.


I had the same problem too, and thought that I was going crazy because I’ve tried so many different recipes and always end up with hollow beignets!

What I eventually found out was that when I fried my dough in lower heat, the longer time allowed the dough to expand more, which resulted in bigger, puffy, hollow beignets.

When you cook them in medium heat, the quicker frying time allows the heat to expand just the outside and a little bit in the center- this is what makes it less hollow and more pillowy.


Why is it faster to reheat something than it is to cook it?

"Cooking" is often a chemical process.  Denaturing proteins, gelatinization, causing chemical reactions like browning, or even causing state changes like evaporation.

In many cases for these reactions to happen, we need to overheat the food.  (Cook it and let it rest to cool off back down to undo some of the changes that were made and/or bring it back down to a reasonable temperature to eat).  This is true when grilling meats, frying, baking bread, and lots of other types of cooking.

Other times, we need to bring something to temperature and hold it there for some period of time.  This holds for extracting collagen, starch gelatinization (eg, cooking pasta, potatoes, etc.) but also just waiting for flavors to transfer in soups and similar dishes.

With warming, you're just adding enough heat to it to move it a few degrees, but you're not typically trying to change the state of the food, so less total energy is needed.

Now, it is always faster to reheat vs. cook things?  For the most part it's true, but I suspect that there would be an edge case out there.  Something that's cooked from room temperature, but then stored chilled and the chilling causes issues (like retrogradation in starches, maybe?) that make them more resist than reheating.


Are there small electric saws that can cut beef marrow bones?

A manual butcher's saw will work fine on bone or frozen meat; they cut pretty quickly. (In particular, they will cut much more efficiently than a serrated knife or hacksaw, neither of which has appropriate teeth. Never ever attempt to cut bone with a serrated knife.) Butchers will often use a manual saw instead of a bandsaw for tricky angles or just to avoid having to transfer back and forth between a butchers block and the bandsaw.
The problem with using a small electric saw is that all of them are meant to be held two-handed with all body parts well away from the blade, meaning you'd have to clamp the meat in some way. Nevertheless, if you found a way to clamp things, an electric reciprocating saw with a fine-toothed blade would work fine.


What are unique properties or advantages of tagine?

There are no intrinsic advantages to using a traditional earthenware Tagine vs. a cast iron one or a dutch oven or a Römertopf or any other regular steel/cast iron or earthenware pot that people use to make stews.

Some/Most say the lid with its shape help the moisture drip down to the base, but so does my flat lid on my pot (or the small dimples on some cast iron lids).

There's a discussion on reddit and here about it.

iMO, if wanting to be traditional, use an unglazed earthenware Tagine, and use it often and be careful when using it; but if you cannot find one an use a enamel cast iron one, then there is no difference.


The basis for any sort of Japanese soup dish is going to be dashi stock, a stock made of fish and seaweed. It has a much lighter flavor than chicken broth, so you might not have identified it easily. You can buy it in a powder form for convenience, and it can be sprinkled into other liquids rather than reconstituted.

This recipe is for soba with a dipping sauce, but it'll give you a good idea of the flavor profile you're looking for: Dashi stock plus kaeshi, which is made of soy sauce, mirin, and sugar (and simmered so it's not strongly alcoholic).


If you inspect any commercially sold bagged popcorn, you'll notice that one side of the bag (before it's popped) is denser than the other.  They put all the butter and flavourings on one side of the bag and it disperses as the corn pops.  The flavoring should be on the side labeled "this side up".


How do I mellow out the saltiness in black olives?

You can sometimes get olives that aren't in brine, but instead in oil (often with herbs & garlic which might be a good thing or might not). They're less salty but still have some salt as it's used in the processing.

If you can't get those, or want to use everyday olives you already have, don't just rinse them but also leave them in plenty of fresh water for a few minutes or even longer before draining well.

There's also quite a bit of variation between brands. I haven't tested how well the flavour correlates to the salt in the nutrition label.


How to get the correct expresso extraction amount, grind vs tamper

There are two things happening when you make espresso:

The pressure of the espresso machine pushes the water through the grounds faster than most other coffee-making methods.  In general, the good flavours in coffee are highly water-soluble and the bitter, acidic parts are less water-soluble, so by pushing the water through the grounds quickly, you get proportionally more of the good stuff and less of the bitter.
More significantly, by grinding the coffee very finely and packing it in (tamping), the water doesn't just flow past the coffee particles, the pressure forces the water through the particle where it pushes out some of the aromatic oils which form an emulsion in the liquid.

That emulsion - the crema - is what makes espresso different from coffee, and you need both a fine grind and tamping to get it.

If you're really keen on getting this right, you could start by checking your temperature and pressure - you want ~200 F and ~9 bars.

Your extraction time (30s) is good, and so is going for a double shot, but I'm not sure what you mean by "always go over."  If you're getting good crema, it should ooze out, almost like honey or syrup, and you should stop the extraction when it starts to turn whitish.  If that happens in less than 30s, you should grind your coffee a bit finer and try again.  If it takes more than 30s, you need to go a bit coarser.

If you still find the espresso tastes burnt, try different beans.


There actually seems to be a difference between a chicken paw and a chicken foot. According to a 23-page publication from the University of Pennsylvania:

Chicken Feet = feet and shank
Chicken Paws = feet cut off at the ankle

Though most of that publication is a study of the health conditions for breeding chickens, it does list a few of the types of dishes the parts are used in, including soups and satays.
Food and Beverage Online is a frozen food supplying site. Chicken paws and feet are listed as separate entities there also. This page describes the characteristics of each product.
The USDA International Egg and Poultry report from 2013 lists export statistics separately for paws and feet.
In America, where I live, I couldn't find any recipes specifically calling for chicken paws rather than chicken feet. Since the export sites list them as being distributed largely to China and other Asian countries, maybe some of you who come from there, or have expertise in that kind of cooking, might be able to find something more specific!


What's the difference between Greek and Bulgarian Feta Cheese

Having worked for some time as a cheesemonger, I found that Bulgarian Feta was generally saltier and more assertive than many Greek fetas.  I also found the texture to be a bit grainier with the Bulgarian feta and a bit more dense.  However, my experiences are limited in that while I sold five different Greek fetas, I only sold one Bulgarian Feta.  I'll also point out that while Feta is historically made with goat milk, it can also be made with sheep milk or cow milk as well, so one has to take the milk source into consideration also (for a quick overview, cow feta will generally be mellow and creamy, while sheep, and particularly goat feta will be more acidic.  But even then, the brine can completely counteract these generalizations!).


Leaving buttermilk out overnight, recipe for food poisoning?

Let's assume that we're talking about cultured buttermilk (the modern, sour kind that smells like yogurt), rather than the old-fashioned by-product of making butter, sweet cream buttermilk.

Cultured buttermilk is pretty acidic, with a pH of about 4.5. Acidity is one of the conditions that control the growth of foodborne pathogens and 4.5 is outside of the optimal growing range for most of the bad-guys.

If the buttermilk is fresh, it should have a living colony of good-guy, lactic acid bacteria. This should mean that as it warms up, your existing good-guy bacteria will multiply and lower the pH a bit more. Lactic acid bacteria (the guys that make cheese, yogurt, buttermilk, and sour kraut) help preserve things by making the food a hospitable environment for themselves and an inhospitable environment for bad-guy, pathogenic bacteria.

Since there are existing good bacteria, the pH is low, and neither the dry corn nor buttermilk is likely to bring in contamination from bad-guy bacteria, this instruction seems reasonable.

In fact, maybe the author wants the buttermilk to get a little more acidic (sour) overnight by allowing the lactic acid bacteria to develop a bit more.

That said, the buttermilk package says Keep Refrigerated, and it would be possible for contamination with a bad bacteria to happen and for pathogens to multiply overnight. So there is some risk.

You could soak it in the refrigerator if you wanted to play it safe.

Sources: reading about making cheese, making cheese, watching buttermilk get thicker and more sour in the fridge over time.


How do I safely caramelize honey without fully burning it?

A candy thermometer is pretty much always the answer when it comes to candymaking, which includes caramelizing sugar.

Assuming the soft ball stage is indeed the best for brewing, all you have to do is keep track of the temperature: the soft ball stage is at 112-116C/234-241F.

While you can certainly buy specialized candy thermometers (they often have clips to attach to the pot), all you really need is a thermometer that's accurate in that range and can be easily dipped into your pot. (That is, don't use some old glass thermometer not meant for candy, but a kitchen thermometer with a metal probe is fine, whether or not it was sold as a candy thermometer.) Make sure that you have it in the liquid, not touching the bottom of the pot.

Note that this is well short of burning; there are several other stages hotter than that. So just don't use excessive heat, and keep an eye on it, and you won't have any disasters. This is also likely why people are a bit suspicious that this is the right stage to aim for: table sugar doesn't start browning until you're past all the candymaking stages, up to ~170C/338F. However, table sugar is pure sucrose, while honey has a lot of imperfections and is monosaccharide fructose and glucose, so it likely caramelizes much faster, so this may well be a good stage/temperature range.

There's also a way to test without a thermometer, but it's more difficult to get right on the first try. The stage is named the soft ball stage because if you take a bit of the syrup at that stage and drop it into cool water to quickly cool it, you'll end up with a soft, smooth ball/lump.

Adding water doesn't really help here. The temperatures are well above boiling, so the water is really just there to help get things going initially; the water helps ensure that there's something in contact with the whole bottom of the pot (no hot spots to form), and lets things flow around a bit, so you get to melted sugar with less fuss. Since you're starting with honey, you're already fine. Even if it starts out thick, it'll rapidly get thinner as it heats. All that will happen if you add water is that it'll take longer for all the water to cook off so that the temperature can rise to where you want.

Finally, this isn't what you asked, but if your goal is flavor, you can also simply heat slowly until it starts to brown/darken a bit and smell good, and then immediately remove the pot from the heat. The "slowly" is really important, because  once the water is gone, the temperature will rise rapidly. You can still use a thermometer to help out with this plan, by watching for the temperature to pass 100C and start to increase more quickly; at that point you want to make sure the heat is very low and you're ready to move the pot.


I would recommend a combination toaster and convection oven.  While I have a regular oven in my small apartment, I rarely use it in favor of saving energy (and money on my energy bill) by using the toaster/convection oven.  I have purchased toaster oven sized muffin tins (just a 6 muffin tin) and a toaster oven sized roasting rack that fits two sizes of meat.  My oven came with a roasting pan.  The convection features have done wonderful things for my pies.  You can get them big enough to make pizza in.  As long as you aren't cooking for a crowd, it will work wonders.  Things I've successfully baked in there include:

Muffins
Cake (did have to do it one cake at a time for a layer cake)
Pie (the convection feature is perfect for pie!)
Bread
Cupcakes
Pitas
Steak (well, it was a broiled steak recipe - the best I can do without a grill)
Chicken breasts

I had a friend who rented a place that has a convection cooking setting on the microwave.  We successfully used it to make muffins once, but I haven't tried it further.


Are egg rolls supposed to be eaten with chopsticks or hands?

It's a matter of personal preference when referring to restaurants in the United States. Some egg rolls are too large to be easily handled with chopsticks, and they can be eaten using your hands; smaller ones and similar preparations such as spring rolls can too, but you may find it preferable to use chopsticks. When choosing your own egg roll from a common platter or service station, it's generally considered polite to use a provided utensil.

Note again that this applies only to Asian-American cuisine and American cultural norms. Etiquette may differ in other countries; when in doubt, watch what those around you do and follow their lead.