Would this cheat puff pastry really work?

Yes, that will work just like traditional methods. That's the real deal, it's not even a cheat, it's just smart.

BTW, the last line in your question raised my eyebrows. In puff pastry there is no waiting "for the butter to get softer so that it flattens". The butter is flattened (or sliced) with brute strength while the butter is still ice cold. That's critical to puff pastry. If the butter melts even a little before the layers are formed and it goes in the oven, you're sunk. The final product will be greasy and won't puff as much as it should. You get that puff by having very distinct layers of butter between layers of dough. If the butter is allowed to get warm, even a little, it will absorb into the flour.

Paul Hollywood's method is brilliant. It almost makes me want to make puff pastry from scratch. (almost)

For those disinclined to watch the video but still interested in puff pastry: What Mr Hollywood did in the video was grate frozen butter, then he kept the grated butter in the freezer until he had the rectangle of dough ready for the butter. Then he just sprinkled on the frozen butter and did the first envelope fold. He rolls that out into rectangle again, adds more frozen butter, and repeats the fold. Fridge for one hour, one more roll, fold, roll, done. Well! I wish I had thought of that.

EDIT 5 months later:

I'm still not particularly interested in making puff pastry from scratch since I doubt I can improve on the frozen stuff, however, I was encouraged by @rumtscho to try my hand at croissants. Since croissants are basically puff pastry with yeast, I decided to form my croissant dough using Mr Hollywood's technique.

It worked like a charm.


Sounds similar to a tuile. There's a little more to it that flour and egg white, but that's a good start; you'd also want some sugar, and probably some fat.

I have an example on http://blog.jagaimo.com/archive/2010/03/16/improvised-pumpkin-seed-tuiles.aspx with a few photos. I've also used the same basic batter to make little cups for ice cream, for which I generally crimp four ways over a small teacup. The batter generally loses plasticity very quickly out of the oven, so there's not much time to work.

A fortune cookie is made using a similar technique, though I think the dough has less fat.


I am trying to cook Buta no Kakuni or Japanese pork belly but it's tough

In his book, Masaharu Morimoto says to cook it for 8 hours for the initial phase (in a 240F oven). He also includes brown rice in the initial cooking, which he says helps to tenderize the meat. He then refrigerates it over night and then cooks it for another 2 hours the next day.  The recipe is reproduced on the Chubby Hubby blog.

If that doesn't get the texture you want, you could try a slow cooker or sous-vide. (Sous vide should be able to nail the texture if you get the temperature/time.)


This looks like Trileçe which is indeed a Turkish take on tres leches:

  Trileçe’s heritage is a lot more complicated than that of the éclair. Chasing down the elusive origins of this cake – a Balkan cousin of the Latin American classic tres leches – leads to a deep, dark, global rabbit hole.

And it's certainly got milk in it!

  At Köfteci Arnavut they claim to mix kaymak, the heavy cream of water buffalo milk, and cow’s milk together for the characteristic soak given to the cake. At Baltepe Pastanesi, İdris Beğiroğlu called his recipe a secret but admitted that there was plenty of krem şanti, whipping cream, in there. Tuğra’s menu lists it as a cake of three milks – cow’s, goat’s and sheep’s.


It's extremely common for professional chefs to have fans: most of the time these are mandated by regulations for the safety of those in and out of the kitchen. If you producing so much smoke to be considering protective gear my advice would be to change your method because as it stands you are at risk of fire and you aren't doing your lungs (or those of the people around you) any good.


Am I able to put uncooked chicken back in my fridge for a day?

If it's within it's use by date and hasn't been out of the fridge for more than 2 hours since you bought it, then yes, it should be fine. Cover it well.


What beans can I use to make refried beans?

I have made refried beans out of pinto, small red, black, and even navy beans. I almost tried using kidney beans once but it seemed wasteful.

They were all different in texture but they were all good. Black beans, for example, have a much more fibrous skin so the refried beans are not as smooth- I actually prefer it to the homogeneous pinto mash. Obviously their color is also more interesting.

There are a lot of different bean varieties and I don't know what is available to you. In general I would say to just try whatever you have- it will probably taste good even if it isn't exactly like pintos.


First point I would not is that the mixer you mention (Avantco MX20 20 Qt.)is not recommended for pizza dough as stated here

Secondly this not withstanding the capacity of this mixer for bread dough is 16-18 lbs (7-8 KG approx). By my calculation you are trying to mix around 30 lbs (14 KG). Avantco MX20 20 Qt. specification

My recommendation as a short term measure is halve your batch size.
In addition as recommended by others, weigh ingredients. Measuring dry ingredients by volume will always be variable.

As a long term solution research in to getting a specialist mixer for pizza dough.


Transfer vegetables objects from cutting board to pan

You can use a bench scraper for this sort of task:

Just push the food onto the bench scraper (you can slide the bench scraper underneath the food as well), and move it. You can see a demonstration in this article by Serious Eats.

Depending on how your cutting board is positioned, you can also just use a knife/bench scraper to push it off the board into a bowl (e.g. if the board is on the edge of a table).

Depending on the type of knife you're using (a chef's knife, for example), you can move the dice onto the side of the knife, but you won't have as much room as with a bench scraper. Also, you can dull your knife this way / cut yourself if you aren't careful.


Is there any reason against using red onion, or a mixture of red and yellow onions to make an onion soup?

I would simply use whatever onions I had available! Red onions have a milder flavour than yellow onions (therefore red is usually preferred in salads) and obviously different colour but the difference is still small enough to interchange with no problem. Unless, of course, you desire a particular colour in the soup or are particular about the soup having a strong or mild flavour. Leek would make it even milder and sweeter. If I'd have to make a choice I would use yellow onions and spare the red ones for raw/decorative use.


Where in the US can I purchase Turkish Coffee/Cafe Botz/Mud Coffee

Turkish coffee is simply a very, very fine grind - basically ground into a powder - prepared by boiling it and subsequently waiting for sedimentation, more or less as you describe in the question.

There is no particular kind of coffee you need for it - any will do.

Just buy whole coffee beans in any coffee shop or bulk food store and ask for a very fine (Turkish) grind.  Most burr grinders can handle this; as Michael says, you can also buy your own burr grinder or use a specialized Turkish grinder.  Either one will tend to run you around $100.

(Note that you probably won't be able to get the right grind with the majority of blade grinders.  They're just too imprecise.)

Commenter Martha also points out that many coffees marketed as Turkish coffee will also contain a certain amount of cardamom or cloves, which is confirmed by several internet sources. If you try it with pure coffee and it doesn't taste right, try adding a small amount.


Is boiling water poured over frozen berries enough vs. bacteria?

From the comments, Henrik noted that there is a parasite in Sweden (called "Dvärgbandmask" in Swedish) that contaminates wild fruit.  This is a type of tapeworm called "Echinococcus" in English.  Its eggs can cause a parasitic disease called Echinococcosis or hydatid disease.  According to this article, freezing the eggs to very low temperatures and/or freezing the eggs very rapidly is fatal to them.  Given that modern "IQF" freezing methods for berries bring the fruit very quickly to below -20°C, I'd say that the danger from echinococcosis is very low (much lower than eating unwashed fresh fruit).

As for risks from bacteria, these are also very low because the process of preparing the fruit for freezing and then subsequently freezing them kills the majority of any present bacteria.


Can you not simply infuse your alcohol with ginger? Its slower, but effective. It doubles as a way to store fresh ginger.

If I'm peeling some ginger, I'm peeling an entire "thumb" of ginger and storing the peeled slices in vodka in a mason jar. The ginger keeps for at least 2 months, though it's never been around for that long. I read about the technique from Fine Cooking.

After a few weeks to a month, I have ginger-infused vodka.


Preventing Warping when Roasting at High Temperature

The bottom surface of the pan will expand as it heats. The edges will also expand but they won’t be able to expand as much as the bottom surface. This will cause the warping, even cracking.

As you have mentioned one way of avoiding this is having one or two edges, as the cookie sheets would have. These pans will not create such tension as the surfaces of the pans expand.

In your case however I think you need thicker pans that can withstand the tension.


Problem with crepe batter collecting on spreader

I have the an earlier model of this griddle, and have made hundreds of buckwheat crepes (galettes) on it, so here's some advice based on my own experience.

Your answer is in your description: "After a lite greasing of the surface I pour the batter on and as soon as the batter hits the griddle the first problem begins which is an almost boiling of the batter."

The griddle is way too hot.  You need to turn it down more.  If you can't turn it down enough to not get the batter to foam on contact, then you have a defective griddle that's too hot and you should return it.  It's possible that it's too hot because you're letting it sit for a long time with the heat on before using it; for some reason the griddle seems to build up heat as it sits.  In that case, wipe it with a wet paper towel to bring the heat under control.

The correct heat is when the batter sets right when it hits the griddle, but does not boil, foam, or immediately turn brown.  As many times as I've used the griddle, I generally have to fiddle with the heat level and ruin one crepe before I can get it right.  In the model I have, the heat dial is labeled 1-10 instead of with temperatures, and I generally have it set to 2 or 3 ... no higher (so probably 120C to 150C on yours).

Snefel is right that you may also be greasing your griddle too much.  Personally, I grease it with 1 tsp of butter before the first crepe, and not again after that.


How to store batter (contains raw eggs) under 41 degrees F?

As stated in this answer for a somewhat related question:

  The ideal refrigerator temperature is 35°F (1.6°C). You're not hugging the danger zone like you would be at 40°F (4.4°C), and you're distancing yourself sufficiently from 32°F (0°C) that you don't freeze half the stuff in your refrigerator. That said, the temperature within your fridge can vary rather significantly with normal usage.

The reason for the quote is that most domestic refrigerators are able to be set to a temperature of less than 40ºF. As you are not talking about domestic but it sounds more industrial/professional, I doubt you would have a refrigerator that can't store at a temperature below this.

Therefore I would imagine storing it in the fridge would be fine and more convenient than the ice bucket suggested.

However the temperature within different areas of the fridge can vary depending on how frequently it is accessed (which is why you shouldn't keep eggs or other easily spoilable foods in the fridge door) so this could potentially be a problem depending on your exact situation, how frequently it is opened and where in the fridge you keep the batter.


Is soy milk in America similar to the type in East Asia?

East Asian soy milk and American soy milk taste very different, and not just because of added ingredients like sugar and emulsifiers.

Soy beans contain an enzyme called lipoxidase, which breaks down unsaturated fatty acids into shorter chain lipids. For American markets, manufacturers presoak the beans in solvents such as calcium hydroxide in order to destroy this enzyme. After the enzyme is gone, the solvent is deactivated with an acid to form a neutral pH product. In East Asian markets, no one bothers with this added step, and just leave the lipoxidase in there.

Why the difference? Taste, mostly. Remember The shorter chain lipids mentioned before? They taste, well, bean-y. Soy milk manufacturers like Silk found through trial and error that Americans want their soybean milk to taste more like milk, and less like soybean, so this bean taste must be neutralized.

For East Asian people who grew up drinking soybean milk, soybean milk needs to taste like, well, soybean.


You can freeze it, however using it will be a problem as you will have to chip out what you want on demand rather than thaw and re-freeze it.

Miso paste lasts ages in the fridge as long as you put it in an airtight container to prevent it from drying out, you're better off just doing that.


How can I tell whether an egg has been hard-boiled, through the shell?

Take an egg from the carton and 'spin' it on the work counter. If it spins, it's cooked, if it does anything else, it's not.


How can I create a sweet pizza that looks like pizza?

If you make the base neutral - a typical Neopolitan dough would do - you could use white chocolate shavings to give an appearance of cheese as well.  I would keep the amount light.

While looking to verify this idea, I found a recipe that gave me a few more pieces of inspiration.  Instead of carmelized sugar banana slices, try dried fruits (strawberries, sweetened cranberries, raspberries, etc.) for your toppings.  These will look like sausage bits or pepperoni.  You can also use pineapple and make it look like a Hawaiian pizza.

You could also use almond cream as a white sauce or as some of your cheese for a richness that is not too sweet.


Use of sour milk for bread making - how long after the expiration date is it safe?

I'm not so lucky as to be able to get whole raw milk…

Wait, then there's a flaw in your premise. Check the label. Any milk treated using high-heat processes like UHT, pasteurization or ultra-pasteurized milk doesn't sour like it used to in your grandmother's days; it spoils… goes rotten.
Spoiled milk is not the same as soured milk.
The ultra-pasturized milk sold in the supermarket is essentially a dead product, with little to no live bacteria. When it goes bad, it rots and should be thrown out (or you can make plastic with it). Modern industrial pasteurization kills the “good” bacteria that once made sour milk a wonderful thing for cooking and making bread and cheese.
Substituting "Sour Milk"
If you have a recipe calling for sour milk, put a teaspoon of vinegar in a cup of fresh milk and let it sit for a few minutes. That's about the best you can do if you do not have access to raw milk.


How can I prevent pan fried chicken from becoming too chewy?

Simple - you're just overcooking it. A very common fate for chicken breast.


Why are stems common in packaged raisins but uncommon in breakfast cereals?

I've noticed a difference between raisin brands in the past. Given my habit of alternating weekly shops between the close/cheap supermarket and the well-stocked one I'd choose to buy them at the better shop, though I've had worse than even that cheaper shop.
From the better shop I find less than one stem in a generous handful of raisins (on my otherwise plain weekday Weetabix), but in the worst ones I've tried I've found a few every day.  This all indicates that there's a possibility for variation from some point in the production process.
Given that variation, so long the worst ones aren't added to breakfast cereals, and given the dilution by other ingredients, I'd expect to find very few.
In addition, there's no guarantee you'll find every single one.  On weetabix or porridge I've been known to spot a stem only to lose it when it sinks, but then not to find it when eating.  In something like granola with its range of textures and harder components I would be more likely to miss an occasional stem.


What are convenient and reliable ways to make the starter for rye bread?

I've received some portions from friends and family, which have always worked well. :-)

When I'm creating it from scratch, I mix 200g of rye flour, a little bit of yeast (which you can leave out), 1 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of honey, 1 dl of organic yogurt and 2 dl of water. I leave this mixture out on the kitchen table (at around 20C) for a day with a piece of wet cloth on top. After that I add 2 dl of rye flour and enough water to make the dough soft. This sits on the kitchen table for yet another day, after which is should look like a pool of lava and smell a bit acidic.

The honey and the yogurt is the magic touch that makes this starter work, according to my books and research. I've never done anything special to control the temperature or anything else.


From what I understand chappatti flour (atta) is very finely ground whole wheat flour, so it does appear to be more white than regular whole wheat flour, but it does have a noticable difference if you compare the two flours side by side, both in texture and colour.
You could definitely use it for muffins or pancakes if you're so inclined! Just as you can sub whole wheat flour, you could sub atta.


Oven temperature gauges are wildly inaccurate.  So it is very likely your times and temperatures are off.   It sounds like the cupcakes are under-cooked, and are sinking as they cool. Use a good digital thermometer to test the internal temperature of your cupcakes.  Shoot for 205 - 209F (96-98C) internal, at the center of the cupcake.  Alternately, you can use the low tech. method of testing them with a toothpick by dipping into the center.  If it comes out clean, they are done.  If there is batter sticking to the toothpick, keep baking.  ...and it doesn't hurt to have a good oven thermometer to see where your oven stands in terms of accuracy.


Brewer here. Yes, that should work fine.

Material-wise, you want stainless steel so there is no leaching of metal when you start to boil, and no break down if you use chemicals in it later for cleaning (don't ever leave any chemicals in the pot though, follow directions, many chemicals will even eat away stainless steel if left too long). Either stainless steel or aluminum can handle the heat. Stainless steel encased aluminum pots actually tend to heat more evenly though (not much of a concern when brewing), so that's nice.

The only consideration you have is size.  40 qt. is 10 gallons.  Most intro batches of beer are 5 gallons. This would be perfect for a 5 gallon batch.  If you mash (as opposed to extract), you will collect about 6-7 gallons of wort (pre boil). This will boil off leaving you the amount you want.  See where I'm going?  If you up the brew from 5 to 10 gallons, the next most common homebrew size, the 10 gallon pot is not big enough.  There are tricks to get around this though, such as boiling less liquid and topping off with water to desired amount, but having less liquid affects hop utilization (not too big of a deal on a homebrew scale though).

So, I'd say if you're just starting out, this pot size is fine. It will get you through intro size (5 gal) and will even work at 10 gal, depending on how you do it and what you want to do.  Anything bigger, you'll probably want pro and/or dedicated equipment.


When is a Utility Knife to be preferred over a Chef's or a Paring knife?

There's no question that a 4 or 5 inch utility knife is going to see a lot less use than your chef's knife or your paring knife, both of which have innumerable uses.  The utility knife is a lot more specific, really being for cases where the paring knife is too short and the chef's knife is too heavy or thick.  I have a 4" utility knife, which (of course) I got for free with a 6" Sabatier chef's knife.  It gets used a couple times a week, for:

scoring onions in order to mince them
cutting limes in half (a chef's knife seems like overkill here)
splitting small peppers
slicing large California shallots
cutting cheese

... and similar occasional, accessory uses.

Part of the problem with the 4" utility knife is that it's really a dwarf 6"-8" utility knife.  The 6" or 8" utility knife, now commonly called a "vegetable knife", is far more useful; the long, thin blade is excellent for making paper-thin vegetable and fruit slices, and can be used as a fileting knife if you don't have one.  At the 4" size, though, the utility knife is useful only for cutting things which happen to be small, and only if you don't already have a more general knife dirty.

If what you're really asking is "can I get rid of this knife?", the answer is "yes".


Anything that is normally cooked by simmering / boiling in liquid can be cooked in a microwave in the same way, if your microwave can keep the liquid simmering.

So for pelmeni just put them in a bowl of salted boiling water (use a kettle or the microwave to bring it to the boil first), bring back to a simmer and cook on high for the same length of time you'd cook them in a pan on the stove. If your microwave is not powerful enough to keep the water simmering, cook smaller amounts at a time.

It's less efficient than doing it on the stove, takes more time and is more fuss. The pelmeni will take longer to come back to a simmer than they would on the stove, so the dough will be relatively overcooked and soft.


Keep dinner rolls brushed with olive oil overnight

The good thing is that the oil won’t go rancid in a few hours, which allows you to focus more on how to keep the bread part at its best.
Don’t refrigerate and don’t freeze, the former will make them go stale, the latter can dry them out disproportionately, considering the short time. Either keep them in the closed paper bag or transfer them to a plastic bag or container.
For some rolls, overnight on the counter is also fine, but that depends a bit on how they were made.
Tomorrow, you could quickly warm them up before serving, but don’t use a too-hot oven, I would guess something around 150°C/300°F should do.


Having your bread split isn't necessarily a sign that your dough is underproofed. Many breads get considerable oven-spring, that is expansion due to the expansion of air and last gasp of yeast from the heat of the oven. If your crust hardens before the oven spring is complete the loaf may split to release the pressure. There's a couple of ways to prevent this:

Slash your bread more deeply before baking. The goal of slashes is not just cosmetic, it allows the bread to expand
Introduce moisture into the oven to keep the crust from hardening too quickly. A pan of water works well for this, you put enough water to last for the first 20 minutes of baking. After 20 minutes the oven spring should be done and you'll want the crust to harden. You can also bake the bread in a closed pot in the oven for the first 20 minutes to trap moisture, then take the lid off for the rest of the baking


I'm intrigued by this question, so I'm posting an attempt at answering it, hoping it would attract a better answer by an expert.

I am not a vet, but to me it looks like an injury that didn't have time to fully heal. Since the mass production of poultry emphasizes fast growth of the birds, it's not that surprising to me.

These birds are often kept in a sub-optimal environment, so the injury could have been infected too, but it did not become bad enough for the turkey to die from or for the producer to deem the bird worthy of discarding or butchering into smaller pieces.

Was it safe to eat? Probably yes. The quality of the meat may have suffered to some degree though.


Whether colder is better would depend on how freezing "simplifies production" for you and how long the food will be stored.

In a long-storage scenario, lower temperature is definitely beneficial as it does improve storage lifetimes. If it's a matter of weeks or days so that you can prep a batch and cook as needed, no real benefit.

Without knowing how freezing "simplifies production" for you, it's hard to say if colder would be of any benefit on that mark. All other things being equal (as they often are not) a colder freezer will take more energy to run, since additional refrigeration is not free.

My sorbets typically hold more than long enough at 0°F. If the mixture is not churned, it freezes hard at that temperature. Some sugar syrup will weep out, but that will also happen at cooler temperatures. Even if churned, it would not slop out of a pie shell, so I'd say it would handle similarly.

{not that you seem to be considering one - but mention might be made of "blast freezers" which are sort of the convection-oven of freezing, and may run as cold as -70F - those have the benefit of very fast freezing, minimizing the size of ice crystals - then the product is typically moved to a storage freezer once it's been "flash frozen" - not clear that this would offer your product any benefit, as the filling will be cooked after thawing. }


How can I integrate molecular gastronomy into regular cooking?

Wow. This is a big topic. As someone who is deeply interested in this cooking movement, let me try and suggest a few things.

First, reading this article would be a very good start. In it, Ferran Adria/Harold McGee/Heston Blumenthal and Thomas Keller (not exactly a man known for avant garde cuisine) put forth the position that in essence there is no such thing as molecular gastronomy, it is merely a logical continuation of cooking techniques that have stood the test of time.

Bearing that in mind, I think what you're asking is 'how do I paint from the new palette that Adria has spearheaded?'

The answer is both simple and complex. At its most basic, MG is about playing with perception, and tries to look at food in a couple of different ways. First is what is widely known as deconstruction: taking a well known dish and reimagining it in order to play up a specific flavour from the dish, provide the same flavours with new textures, or provide a new spin on the dish. Even something as simple as substituting a pancetta cracker on a Caesar salad instead of lardons is fundamentally deconstructive in its approach.

What Adria does is out there at the absolute bleeding edge of cuisine. He views texture and flavour as separate things, and during their working sessions at elBullitaller and in the restaurant (which is, sadly, closing as a restaurant on 31 July of next year) they focus on presenting interesting flavour and texture combinations. Blumenthal and Achatz, by contrast, aim at providing more recognizable food and trying to make the 'molecular' processes in the dish more transparent.

So look at some of the things you make on a regular basis. How can you highlight a specific flavour? How can you change perception of the dish? As an example, I was thinking last night of making bite-size creme brulee; encapsulate the creme using the calcium/alginate method and set with gelatine, make spheres. Modifying Adria's technique for his pumpkin oil sweet (from A day at elBulli), one can then coat the whole thing with a crunchy layer of caramelized isomalt. Alternatively, use his method for adding a layer of caramel to an egg yolk. Voila... reimagined dish that everyone will recognize in flavour, but very different in texture and how it behaves in the mouth. Garnish and so on are then up to you.

But that may be going too far for you. So let's look at some other ideas. A restaurant I used to work at served a sous vide short rib that was actually two pieces of (bone out) short rib meat glued together with transglutaminase, allowed to bond overnight, then cooked sous vide for 24 hours until medium rare all the way through. Beyond that, the rest of the dish was grounded very solidly in classic French technique. To the guest, the 'molecular' aspect of the meal was entirely transparent.

Or consider the classic combination of smoked salmon/dill/lemon/cream cheese. You could make a foam of the cheese (to reduce the claggy mouthfeel while sacrificing no flavour), mix in encapsulated lemon caviar (to provide a textural counterpoint when your guest crushes it with their teeth), and dress the whole with a dill oil. Same flavours, slightly different textures... and it's all 'molecular.' You could go way out there and infuse the cheese with the flavour of smoked salmon, or make a smoked salmon cracker or whatnot, but I think that is going too far for you.

A dish I was working on at the restaurant (and have had to abandon for now, due to switching jobs) was a simple coconut cream pie, deconstructed into a napoleon-esque stack. But instead of pastry, I made coconut crackers with methylcellulose and coconut water. The pastry cream was made with coconut milk instead of cream (note: you need to leave the cream overnight for the flavour to develop properly; also ensure you cook it long enough to cook out the cornstarch). To be served with a toasted coconut macaroon of sorts (coconut bound with barely enough lightly whisked egg white to hold it together, baked until toasted) and a white chocolate and lemon sable cookie to provide the missing pastry flavour, and a little chantilly enhanced with Malibu rum. Again... molecular elements, but largely transparent to the diner. The focus was on providing the most intense coconut experience I could come up with.

At its base, MG is really about finding the truest and purest expressions of flavour. If you look at most MG-centric dishes, they focus on a single flavour with everything else on the plate providing a supporting or contrasting role. Not all that different from classic techniques, is it?

One of the other approaches to creating a new dish that Adria uses is to consider a single ingredient, and what works well with that. Exploring flavour compound databases is a really good way to go about this process. Here is one that I find useful, even if the design is stuck somewhere circa 1995. It is a method that Blumenthal uses extensively, which is how he came up with his salmon coated in licorice (not that far a stretch, given the affinity of tarragon and fennel for fish), as well as the sounds-bizarre-but-is-delicious combination of cauliflower and chocolate. Easy recipe: clean and cut your cauliflower into florets. Dust lightly with cocoa powder, coating each piece. Shake off excess. Season with salt and pepper, roast approx 15 minutes at 375. Sounds weird, yeah? Well, turns out that cauliflower and chocolate both share distinctive flavour chemicals. So they go well together.

At its heart, molecular gastronomy really is just the same classic techniques we are familiar with. The key difference is that it asks three questions:

How? (do we make this better/enhance this flavour/provide a new texture)
Why? (do we put these flavours together/cook things this way/follow these steps)
Why not? (do it differently)

I think I will stop my rambling here. I hope it helps. And I will leave you with three incredible blogs (one of them courtesy of Michael at Herbivoracious).

Playing With Fire and Water - truly spectacular molecular-influenced cooking.
Ideas in Food - Wonderful. Molecular weaves in and out of what they are doing.
Studiokitchen - Questions a lot of sacred cows, aims at making molecular transparent to the guest.


Cream of Tartar is potassium bitartrate in the form of powder. It is acidic, and is used in cooking mainly to stabilise meringue.

Tartare sauce is a mayonnaise-based sauce made using cornichons, capers, and tarragon or dill. It is usually served with seafood.

The two items are completely different and cannot be substituted one for the other.


Fat
That depends on what consistency you like, how oily/fatty you like your food, and the kind of food you are preparing.
For things cooked on high heat, like hamburgers, more fat will give the meat more flavor and tenderness.
For things cooked on lower heat, like spaghetti sauce or a casserole, less fat is generally preferable as the looser ground meat will absorb more of the flavor from the sauce/seasoning. It will also make the dish more attractive by not having a layer of oil from the fat floating on it.
Precautions

Always promptly and carefully wash the grinder with hot water and soap after using. Ground meat is more vulnerable to bacteria due to more surface being exposed to the environment.

It is a good practice to sanitize the areas of the grinder exposed to the meat after, and even before using it. You can purchase food-grade sanitizing liquid online or from a restaurant supply store. This is especially important dealing with poultry meat. Poultry, especially ground, is particularly vulnerable to Salmonella. Here is information about handling poultry from the CDC.

Use mineral oil to lubricate the grinder plates, knives and corkscrew regularly. You can also use it on other steel surfaces to preserve its appearance.

Tips

Grind meat twice to get a smoother appearance and texture. Some types of recipes may call for just a coarse grind but generally you will prefer the smoother kind.

Mix types of meats together for interesting results. For example, Bolognese style pasta often using a mix of veal/beef, pork and lamb.

Add your dry seasoning to the meat before grinding to make it more even and quicker to prepare. This works great for things like meatloaf, sausages, etc.

Accessorize! You can usually purchase things like sausage tips so you can make your own. If you have a dehydrator you can make jerky and meat "sticks" (like you can buy at the gas stations).


There are a few workarounds to mince your meat, but the results may be not what you are looking for:

Some immersion blenders have a special attachment especially for mincing meat or stringy veggies. It's got two super-sharp "winglets". (I'll add a photo once I find mine.) You need to be super careful and fast, or the meat will be more like a puree / paté instead of tiny minced pieces.
Food processors will have similar issues: blend a second too long and you have a farce again.

This is based on the fact that meat grinders are based on a totally different principle - they push the meat towards the holes and cut off tiny pieces from the larger chunks while the rotating knives puree the food.
If you are ok with that, they can be an alternative to dragging out the large meat grinder (and cleaning it afterwards). Note that both substitutes require prepping the meat carefully - remove all sinews and similar. Also, chill your meat well. Cold meat will keep its consistency better than slightly warmer meat.

I personally would use a large chopping board and a sharp large knife and chop up the few servings before bothering with tools. But YMMV - it depends on how comfortable and skilled you are with your knife.


What care should be taken to prepare dough and Chapatis with Rice flour?

Your mistake here was using room temperature water. Unlike wheat flour, rice flour contains no gluten to give it structure.

Instead, rice contains a starch called amylopectin (and another called amylose, but that's irrelevant here). Boiling the rice breaks the amylopectin molecules, and makes the rice sticky.

So, in order to keep your chapatis in one piece, you need to use boiling  water. Recipes I have looked at seem to suggest adding the rice flour to water boiling in a pan and stirring until it comes together.


Different countries can have very different names for their cuts of meat, and in some cases, there isn't an obvious/direct equivalent from a French cut to an American or English cut. If you look at a French butcher's diagram, you'll see the lines and cuts don't correspond directly to a US diagram.

I believe that what you saw labeled as "plat nerveux" is likely "gite de noix" which in the US is "eye of round roast". "Nerveux de gite" is a braised beef dish that is kind of like an American pot roast.

Eye of round can have a shape similar to a tenderloin, but is a tougher, less expensive cut of meat.


Pork rillettes - drain fat before shredding or not

... but it's not clear if I should drain off the fat from the cooking before shredding the pork or not. I assume this would be the way to go so you can better control the amount of fat in the finished product.

You are correct. Drain and reserve fat, shred the pork, re-add as much as you need.


As a note before the post I am more scientist than baker.

The stress you can put on a structure before it severely deforms depends on a lot of things including it's Young's modulus. These are very well understood for construction materials but I came across this paper which discussed it for various cake recipes (PDF). The recipe I found for mud cake has about 27% flour so I used values accordingly for my calculation.

If we assume that we do not want more than a 5% deformation (this may seem like a small number but my estimation is an attempt at being conservative, plus it would be at the very least noticeable) then the maximum height would be about 28 inches.

Or to put it another way, your two 9 in pans for the bottom layer and the 7 in for the top would make a delicious cake with some room left over for frosting. If you are really concerned about structure I also came across this recipe which kind of talked about that as well (much more so from a baking perspective).

Other info from Epicurious.


How quickly do I have to use my thawed pizza dough?

The short answer is yes, you can keep it in the fridge until you're ready to use it, up to 4-5 hours I would think. It will be too cold to over-ferment. It's better to defrost it in the fridge to avoid it getting too warm.


How might I roast coffee at home without investing in an expensive roasting machine?

Hot Air Popper

The cheapest and simplest is to use a (cheap) electric hot air popper. The old favorite is the West Bend Poppery, but you can use anything as long as the vent holes (where the hot air comes in) are on the sides rather than the bottom.

I've roasted a lot of coffee this way. It works, but there are a few downsides. The biggest problems:

The circuation is designed for popcorn, which expands a lot more than roasted coffee beans. I've needed to stir the beans manually in order to get an even roast. They don't have to be stirred constantly, but you can't just drop the beans in and walk away.
The capacity is pretty low, especially when you take the circulation into account. I can only roast a half a cup at a time, which is pretty slow.
The temperature doesn't get quite high enough to really bring the flavors out. The roast is good, but it's really mellow.

[source: Chris g Collision, Flickr Creative Commons]

I've read about modifications you can make that will improve these: changing out resistors, modifying the airflow, and even hooking up an Arduino to control the heat a lot more closely, but it seems like more work than I've wanted to invest in the process.

Heat gun / metal dog bowl method

My brother's moved on to this approach, and I'm soon to follow. The benefit of a heat gun is that the temperature is high enough to get a good roast, and the airflow is high enough that you can roast a few cups of coffee at a time.

[source: Ocell, Flickr Creative Commons]

More Insanity
Sweet Maria's sells green coffee beans, and lists a huge amount of home roasting methods, including Weber Kettle conversions. The sky's the limit, but I'd start small with the air popper or the heat gun first.

I'd do this outside
Some methods have you roasting the coffee in your kitchen - in the oven, on the stove, etc. I wouldn't want to do this myself, for two reasons. The beans have thin husks on them, which come off as the beans are roasted. They're messy, and I wouldn't want them flying around my kitchen. Also, roasting coffee doesn't smell as good as you'd think it would.

Sources of more info:

http://www.ineedcoffee.com/section/roasting/
http://www.sweetmarias.com/articles.php#roastAndBrew
http://www.sweetmarias.com/homemade-homeroasters.php


If you are saying that there was an explosion while you attempted to dry/bake plain loose flour in a fan-assisted oven, then I'd say it was a classic dust explosion (flour explosion). It occurs when fine dust of combustible material (the flour) is dispersed in the air (e.g. by air whirling) and then gets ignited by an open flame, a heat element, or even an electrostatic discharge. This can happen at any temperature. Flour explosions are a known workplace hazard in the food industries and grain/flour storage facilities.

Next time turn off fan-assisted heating in your oven. If not possible, use a different oven.


It could require more time, thanks to extra zucchini.  It's a good idea to drain your zucchini right after grating.  Not completely, just some of that collects at the bottom of the bowl.  That, and a regular loaf pan of zucchini bread can take up to 90 minutes.


How far in advance can I prepare vegetables without it detracting from their flavour/ texture etc?

The easy answer is that almost all things will start to deteriorate at soon as cut, but noticeable is the key.  John points out, this will vary by item.  Most fruits and softer items will be far less forgiving.  Potatoes, a relatively hard item tends to oxidize badly, but water dunking tends to fix that with them as well.  Items as you mention though, carrots, celery, lettuce, cabbage, any item that is pickled, these type of items tend to be more forgiving.  An hour, maybe two, you likely will not notice any loss of quality.  Plastic wrap to prevent drying will help and maybe extend this time.  Wrapping and then ice or refrigerate, even better for dry items, but for wet items like cucumbers the weeping can be detrimental.  With things like onions, garlic and herbs, well I would classify these as aromatics and part of their flavor is being lost anytime you can smell them so I would tend to save them for prep closer to use if possible.  If you do need to prep them ahead, I have minced garlic a hour ahead for instance, then tossed it with olive oil that I was going to use in the dish.  Please do this short term only though, as raw garlic stored is olive oil is classified by USDA as a salmonella risk.  Hour should be fine, days not so much.


What's the technique for frying plantain?

In the Caribbean green plantains are treated much like potatoes.  One technique that is common is twice-frying, usually with a soak in water either before the first fry, in between, or both.  Soaking plantains allows them to absorb a little water to help steam the inside as it fries, much like one would do for American-style french fries (UK: chips).  One example of this technique is Tostones.  The Puerto Rican classic cookbook "Cocina Criolla" by Carmen Valldejuli calls for soaking the plantain pieces in room temperature water with salt and crushed garlic for 15 minutes as well as dipping them in water immediately before the second fry.  Like many potatoes, green plantains will often turn brown if left out in the air for too long after being peeled, soaking in water also helps prevent this from occurring as well as reducing the amount of free starch on the outside which can cause over-browning.

Elsewhere, both in the Americas and Africa, green plantains are cut very thinly and fried into plantain chips (UK: crisps).  These are usually 1-2mm thick and also benefit from presoaking.

If you decide not to fry them you could also boil them in salted water like a potato or boil them in vinegar with onions, garlic, and spices to make an escabeche. You could also partially cook them in salted water or stock then bake them in the oven.


A salad chopper I can put in the dishwasher?

A lot of formally not dishwasher-proof gadgets - if they are not electric, and do not contain wood or non-stainless iron parts - do fine in the dishwasher. The most critical thing here would be the blades, and at least one of the ads suggest the blades are dishwasher proof - no sharp blade LOVES being in a dishwasher, but this suggests the alloy chosen being corrosion-proof enough to get by.

Alternative or "green" detergents, or minimizing detergent use, might be a bad choice though, since these are often less effective at dissolving/dislodging food scraps inside things.


I've always done it with my hands. Just don't let it soak too long, it will still be in one piece and will be generally easy to handle.


The mustard is used as a flavouring - either you like whatever flavour the alternative mustard yields, or you don't - and as an added emulsifier. The emulsifier effect can be achieved with pretty much any mustard, be it english, french, or in powder form (mind flavor interaction with vinegar in that case...). The mayonnaise might even work without any mustard if it isn't an eggless recipe, since eggs (lecithin!) act as an emulsifier too.


I am not sure what you mean by lime-infused raisins but let me explain what I do to my raisins for scones.  I usually soak them in Gran Marnier Liquour, anywhere from 4 hours to 24 hours.  I put the raisins in a glass bowl or big cup, covering the raisins with the Liquour.  It depends on how much flavor I want the raisins to have.  Then I strain the raisins and set aside the liquour for either another receipe or someone usually wants to drink it.  I put the raisins in the scones.  My nieces and nephews just love them, their moms tell me because it's just like eating booze, and of course, when I make it for them, I do use more raisins and soak them more than 24 hours for the flavor. I use the white raisins.   Now for your question.

YES I do believe that if you squeeze enough fresh lime juice to cover the raisins, you will achieve your goal.  My only tiny problem is that the lime juice might break down the raisins because of the acidity in the lime juice. So, what I would do is try one cup of raisins, cover with fresh lime juice and check in 2 hours, if ok continue, if you want more flavor wait 2 more hours and check again and make sure not only for flavor but for the break down of the raisins due to the acidity.  What raisins did you eat?  White, red, concord, there are so many types, that I am not sure which would hold up to the acidity.

Now for the drying. Put them in a very low temp oven, 200 degrees about one hour, checking every 20 minutes, checking to make sure that they do not burn or put in a food dehydrator. Then let them cool. Look this up on Google also.  I am giving you my own experience.  My Auntie used to soak her raisins for some of her cookies in Brandy, Whiskey, Vodka and whatever liquour she thought would be interesting.  She was an excellent cook and baker and owned a restaurant.  Her booze soaked rice raisin pudding was awesome.

The old way and even today is to put outside on mesh, covered on both side with cheesecloth so insects and birds or other undesirables will not get to.  This might take a little while,  a few days to a week or two depending on hot it is outside. I would check this every day or so also.

You could also let them stay plump, leave in the fridge, and take out and eat what you want as you want it.  A little juicy but still tasty.  Sounds delicious and in a fruit salad.  I bet this would be awesome.  I have a lemon tree and white raisins and will try this out myself this week.  I bet this will be a big hit!  Good Balance with sweet fruit.  Hope this info helps you.


what is the exact time to add food color in sweet rice?

No it is not perfect time to add color after boiling the rice.

After boiling the rice you should add sugar and other ingredients of your choice and than at the time of steaming stage you should add color in your rice.


How can I make this very low hydration bread more home baker friendly?

An even, dense crumb is going to be partly developed by the kneading process (and partly by the low moisture).  If you want that character in the final loaf, the method probably can't change too much.  You should be able to develop some gluten by leaving it to sit a few extra hours.  However, this type of passive development lends itself more to an uneven, airy crumb.  So it's a trade-off between some longer, passive time with possibility of a slightly different texture resulting or shorter, active time.  I guess it depends what your priority is -- ease of making or character of the loaf.

There are also compounds that can increase gluten production and are not uncommon in commercial breads.  Using a bit of fava bean or soy bean flour can apparently facilitate the gluten production in a more natural way, but I have no idea how much you need to add nor how it will affect flavour.

I recommend reading this nice explanation about gluten development.


Can cashew milk go bad, and how do you tell?

Yes, it can go bad.

The date on the package is one indication, but it may be a "best by"  date and does not guarantee the milk will go bad by then. It doesn't necessarily mean it is guaranteed safe, either, although most stores will give you a refund on product that spoils early.

Look for the following signs (written for almond milk, but cashew milk follows the same rules):

  the container seems abnormally bloated after opening
  mold is present
  any funky or pungent odors
  the product has curdled or is visibly thick and slimy (observe the consistency when putting)
  a change in color, as almond milk may appear more yellow when it has spoiled

Source


How Long to Bake Frozen Artichoke Hearts?

It depends on the artichoke's size.  The Birds Eye brand common in the US will take  about half an hour at 475°F (I have never timed them, so it's a guess).  I just watch them until they start getting brown spots.  If they are big, lower the temperature.


Difference between fermentation and leavening?

Leavening is rising by any means, so baking soda and baking powder (chemical leaveners) both apply here, as does yeast (fermentation).

Chemical leaveners like baking soda and powder work by mixing an acid (varies, depending on the recipe) and base (usually baking soda in some form) to produce carbon dioxide gas.

Fermentation is the process of yeast converting sugars to carbon dioxide and alcohol.  In bread making, the carbon dioxide is the desired product.  In beer or wine making, the exact opposite.  In both cases (beer/wine and bread), other byproducts produced by the yeast add flavour and are highly desirable.

There are other types of fermentation by bacteria (such as those used in yogurt-making, pickles, or sauerkraut) that produce lactic acid; but those are somewhat outside of the scope of this answer (although lactic acid fermentation by bacteria is responsible for the taste of sourdough breads).

To specifically answer your question - yes, yeast breads undergo fermentation (which is also leavening).  Quick breads like banana bread use chemical leaveners, which are not fermentation.


Does resting stew lead to more succulent meat?

It has nothing to do with meat absorbing liquids, that doesn't happen just as you explained it. Once meat has become dry, it doesn't get succulent again by somehow spongeing up liquid. The recipe is right to have you wait before serving though, because the flavors keep improving at least for the first day after cooking a stew. It is about aroma, not about texture.

For more detail, see What causes flavors to "marry"? and What happens chemically when flavours 'mingle'?, probably also other questions.


What would happen if I dehydrated fresh sausages for a couple hours?

You would potentially grow bacteria that would make you sick.  The production of cured sausage has to follow a specific process that makes use of the correct balance of salt, water activity, and acidity (often, along with the addition of nitrates) to create a safe product.  You can certainly make fresh sausage and cook fully, or refrigerate for a few days, or freeze for a much longer time.  Alternately, you can make beef jerky, and fully dehydrate thin slices of meat. However, I would not recommend playing with the age-old, tried and true, processes that have been proven effective for properly producing cured sausages.

Given your edits, and your focus on fresh sausage, dehydration has no advantage, and as @rumtscho clarifies, poses a safety risk.  Either cook fully right away, or chill below 40F (4.5C) immediately.  When I make fresh sausage, I vacuum seal in bags and freeze what I am not using immediately.  This preserves the quality for several months.


Determining Bundt pan size when recipe gives a loaf tin size

According to here, your 8 cup Bundt pan should work.

https://cooksinfo.com/baking-pans-by-volume


stand mixer - reasons to go with a higher wattage vs lower wattage mixer

I was on a similar quest before Christmas. Here is what I learned:

A  6qt will hold about 12 cups of flour, enough for 13 dozen cookies or 8 loaves of bread. A 5qt will hold about 9 cups of flour which would be about 9 dozen cookies or 4.5 loaves of bread according to Kitchenaid.That's good information for when you are working on large batches of something.

My own train of thought on power is: The more powerful machine would last longer than the smaller because it wouldn't be pushed as hard. This may or may not be true, I could not find any information on the average lifespan of these machines. My previous mixer was a 325 watt model (not KA) and was plenty strong enough for making big batches of cookies and kneading bread and is still in great working order. I wanted to upgrade to a fixed bowl type mixer.

It seems like most home bakers prefer the the 5qt. mixers. Based on reading numerous reviews at Amazon it appears as though professional/semi-professional cooks choose the the larger mixer for it's capacity and mixing strength, but that is overkill for everyday home use. The bigger mixers are heavier and taller (If you plan to put the mixer on your counter and there is an upper cabinet make sure to measure to determine that you have enough room).
And there were a few reviewers that had both, liking the bigger model for big jobs & the smaller model for small jobs.

There is an excellent review of mixers at Cooks Illustrated.
Their first choice was a Kitchenaid Proline 7qt. Second place and best buy went to Kitchenaid Classic Plus 4.5qt. (275 watts which held is own in testing against the bigger/more powerful models) Third place went to the Kitchenaid Professional 600 series 6qt. All other models that they tested were rated below that.


Can I use sage tea as a herb while cooking

Without a list of ingredients there's no way to know what else is in your sage tea, or what flavors it will impart to a dish.

If the tea you get from the bag is pleasant then the flavor it imparts to the food should also be good, although sage is a very powerful herb and a whole tea bag of it would likely be far too much.

My view on this is that while you don't want to waste food you also don't want to ruin it, and the global ecology is not going to collapse because you get rid of a sage tea bag. If you really want to use it rip it open and try it on a small dish first and see what results you get.


Are sausages made using the whole body of a chick?

First, most sausages are made from ground pork, not ground chicken. Second, most chickens that we eat are not killed as chicks but when they are larger. Third, in the vast majority of countries there are rules around cleaning animal carcasses before using them, such as removing at least the bowel contents if not the guts themselves. There are also rules about being humane to the animals. Putting live animals straight into a grinder would violate these rules.

But even if you don't believe in government inspectors, ask yourself - why make a nasty sausage with feathers, bones, and poop in it? Who would buy that a second time? And why waste (assuming by chick you meant a large fullsize chicken) the parts you can sell at a much higher price per pound or kg than you can sell sausages? It makes way more sense to remove the breasts and legs, and use the wings, back, neck etc in your cheaper dishes. Which, as I said in my first point, are probably not sausages because chicken sausages are unusual.

It seems the videos of very tiny chicks (just hatched) going into a grinder are real, but the output of the grinder isn't used for sausage or any other human-consumption. This is done for male chicks in egg-producing operations. The output of the grinder may go to pet food or simply be disposed of. Apparently the grinder is considered more humane than putting a bunch of live chicks in a plastic bag until they suffocate, or some of the other culling options. See Jefromi's Wikipedia link for more.


How to prevent shitakes from sticking to pan when sauteeing?

You need to use more oil, and fry at a higher temperature. The oil in your picture is not nearly enough to lubricate the sticky parts, and at the low temperature, the mushrooms are producing quite of bit of wet gunk. Also, you should be stirring (or jumping) them a lot, not leaving them to sweat alone.


Sugar/Citric Acid Coating giving Gummy Bears a Wet Look

I've never eaten soft sour candies. Is the sugared  coating sour too or just the body of the candy?

The reason your candies became sticky is citric acid is generally sold in the anhydrous form. Citric acid exists in anhydrous and monohydrate forms. In the anhydrous form, it's plain citric acid with no water molecule attached. Monohydrate form has a single water molecule attached to the single citric acid molecule.

The anhyrdous form of citric acid is hygroscopic  - which means it attracts and absorbs water from surrounding air. I don't know if there's anything that can be done at this point since anything you tried to dry them (like heating them) would only melt the Gummi bears. And they'd only rehydrate afterward in anything you did that succeeded in driving off the water. It's the nature of citric acid. I use citric acid and keep mine in a glass jar with a tight lid and a few packs of silica gel to absorb moisture and it still tends to clump.

Why not remelt the batch treated with citric acid and make slightly sour ones but coated only with sugar.


Is it problematic to use the water in which the Pinto beans are soaked, for cooking the Pinto beans?

The toxin in kidney beans is destroyed by boiling for around ten minutes, which no doubt holds true for any toxin in the water as well. So there should be no problem with using the soaking water to cook the beans, provided you cook them properly.


The pumpkin flavor you're likely looking for is nothing more than the spices that are added to pumpkin "stuff": cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, etc. If you attempt to do an extract to achieve "pumpkin essence", you will not be happy with the results.

I have been a home brewer (beer, wine, mead, etc.) for 20+ years and have seen many attempts from various brewers to make a "pumpkin beer".  Long story short (and you can do a search and verify what I'm saying on any beer brewing forum's out there), it's the spices that make the flavor, not the pumpkin squash fruit.

Bottom line is there is no "typical anticipated pumpkin flavor" imparted by just pumpkin. To make a great pumpkin beer, the guys who have made multiple batches of pumpkin beer using varied recipes (using chunked up pumpkin, cooked pumpkin, roasted pumpkin, etc.), all ended up finding the perfect pumpkin beer was made using only the spices and not even using any pumpkin at all.


What's the best (minimalist) way to cook venison, specifically the backstrap?

You can cut it into medallions or leave it whole. This is a very lean piece of meat. You can handle it as a steak and fry it in a skillet. However the middle should be (medium) rare, whatever your steak preference is. I would advice against a slow cooker method, but I haven't tried it.

After frying it in the skillet, use the sticky bits to make a wonderful sauce (with some red wine).


What is the best way to store fresh berries?

Store them unwashed. Take out any "bad" ones. I've had decent luck adding some paper towels to wick away extra moisture that seems to speed up the spoilage. Martha Stewart suggest going even further and spreading them out on paper towels on a sheet pan. I have no idea who keeps a fridge empty enough that they can store full sheet pans in there, though.

I've never tried this, but someone suggests washing it lightly in vinegar/water. *shrug*

Then of course, wash and freeze them spread out on a sheet pan (to make it easier to separate later). I assume this isn't what you want to do, but it is very effective, depending on how you plan to use them.


Madhur Jaffrey recipes - Indian/traditional names?

What do you mean by "traditional/proper"?

A lot of Indian food is named simply after the ingredients in it - cucumber salad would probably just be cucumber salad.

Sometimes they are named after the type of cooking method or vessel they are made in. Your Karhai broccoli is an example of that; the karhai (or karahi) is a type of pot used in Indian cooking. It's similar to a wok and usually looks something like this:

If you're looking for the single definitive name that goes with each recipe in that book, you won't find one. The "traditional" name for each dish would just be the recipe title translated into whichever Indian language is most prominent in the region the dish came from. But the translation isn't going to be a "proper" name because it will still be generic; there are so many regional variations on common dishes (variation in ratio of vegetables or meat, or in types and amounts of spices, etc.) and so many languages spoken in India that no dish has a single name or way of making it.

Take any dish that is a staple of Indian food and search for that dish name + "recipe". I guarantee you'll come across nearly infinite variations. (Try something like "aloo gobi" - the translation of these Hindi words is literally just "potato" ("aloo") and "cauliflower" ("gobi"). I've seen hundreds of recipes for it, and no two are exactly the same, but they do contain common ingredients.) Depending on where you are in India, they are sometimes called by English names, too; you might go to a restaurant and see "cucumber salad" on the menu with no explanation of what type of cucumber salad it is.

P.S. "Roasted Moong Dal with Mustard Greens" is a hybrid Hindi-English dish name already (another common trend in urban India). "Dal" just refers to a dish made with pulses, which are usually cooked until soupy/mushy or occasionally pureed. "Moong" is the type of bean used; you sometimes see it spelled "mung" or written "mungbean" (one word) - you can take a look at the Wikipedia page for a more exhaustive list of varieties on the nomenclature.


Crickey, where to begin.  Firstly there is a great article here which will put things far more eloquently than I can.  However, everyone is different.  I assume that you are cooking for yourself/friends/family, and not in a professional setting.  Salt brings out flavors, and unless you actually want to taste salt (for example, crisps), then it should be used solely for that purpose.  I think that maybe you should start using a touch more salt, and go back to your original recipe's other seasoning amounts.  This should help balance things out.  Like a lot of cooking, it is a case of try and try again until you get it right (for you).  have fun!


Adding uncooked rice to a slow-cooked stir fry

You can certainly add rice to the slow cooker--but it will end up more like a rice stew, rather than a stir fry ("slow-cooked stir fry" is also an oxy-moron--the recipe that you link to is in fact a vegetable and meat stew with a vaguely asian flavor profile and has nothing whatsoever to do with a stir-fry). However, the rice you cook in the slow-cooker for several hours will be gummy, overcooked, and the starch that the rice exudes will make the whole thing a gloppy mess, more like a badly cooked risotto than anything else.

My advice would be to cook the rice separately. If you really want to cook the rice in with the other ingredients, I would add it as a top layer, so that it steams rather than boils. But, again, it seems like a much better idea to cook separately--you can even make it in advance.


The key to non-stick cooking is to heat up the pan enough before adding oil. This allows the microscopic "teeth/pits" on the surface of the to pan close up as the metal expands from heating.

Only after reaching this point, add oil. If the recipe calls for a lower heat, the pan will still remain non-stick even if you let it cool down, now. Otherwise, these teeth/pits will bite down on the food that is being cooked.

Use the "water test" to know when the pan is hot enough to add oil. Besides being fascinating to watch, passing the water test ensures the pan becomes amazingly non-stick.

When the pan is hot enough, water will ball up like mercury and slide around the pan without evaporating. The temperature required is pretty high, but I've found the non-stick properties remain if I add the oil and let the pan cool to the cooking temperature I want.

Note: preheating the pan like this applies to non-stainless steel pans, but water only balls up like mercury on stainless steel. Also this may not be safe to do on a Teflon-coated pan.

Detailed explanation of how/why this works: On properly heating your pan


Doubling a soup recipe with a smaller than necessary pot

You should be fine adding the water whenever it's convenient, as long as there's enough water in it already that you were able to cook it properly (and purée if necessary and so on). You're basically just making concentrated soup just like what gets put into lots of cans; water will mix in just fine.


How can I make sugarless chocolate brownies more moist

That 1/4th cup margarine and the 2 eggs are not enough to give those brownies the moisture they need.

I suspect you want something low in sugar and fat.  Evelyn Tribole, MS, RD created two books that talk about substitutions for fat and sugar in recipes.  One technique to replace fat (like butter) in a recipe is to use baby food prunes or applesauce.

Does it work?  I made her brownies that substituted baby food prunes for traditional butter.  The brownies were super moist and I couldn't taste anything "prunes".  This recipe is in her first Healthy Homestyle Cooking cookbook.

For right now, substitute cup for cup baby food prunes or applesauce for the butter/margarine.  I suggest half margarine and half the chosen substitute.  That way you get the flavor of margarine but without the fat.

Or, if you don't mind the fat just add more margarine.  The average brownie recipe usually calls for nearly a full stick (or more) of butter or margarine.  It's the margarine that adds moisture to brownie crumb.  Or oil, or any kind of fat you prefer.


Is it necessary to thaw bones before roasting for stock?

It isn't necessary to even thaw bones before tossing them in the water, so long as you're cooking long enough.

With that said, to roast first and then toss in the stock, the goal is to get some browning going (I'm assuming your recipe says to roast at a relatively high temp like 400) to add some flavor, much like browning the meat at the bottom of a pot for a stew.  Tossing them in the oven at 400 degrees for about 30-45 minutes will brown them for you and you're not too worried about getting the insides cooked (the core reason to why people don't try to roast frozen meat).

Stocks in general is as far from an exact thing as any recipe can go.  There was this interesting article talking about all the differences in schools... http://www.sfgate.com/food/article/STOCK-TIPS-3237449.php#page-1

So in conclusion... it isn't necessary.  If you're a stickler for recipes or you're trying to duplicate something as close as you can, thaw the bones.


Ice Cream Bar Wrapping Machine Suggestions?

Just use lightweight "zip-loc" style bags. They are available in all sorts of sizes. It only has to be freezer safe, not 100% vacuum packed

Many packaging printers can "screen print" plastic bags


Fastest or most efficient way to cook rice in a pot with a lid?

Harrold McGee indicates in On Food and Cooking that soaking brown rice for 20-30 minutes can speed the cooking.  However, he doesn't give any specifics.

In looking to what I consider highly credible cooking web sites, I have not found any definitive answers.

Cook's Illustrated's recommended method for the fastest, best tasting brown rice (no link since it is probably on the pay site) is:

  Boiling the rice for our brown rice recipe until it is almost tender
  (about 30 minutes), draining it, then steaming it until done (another
  five to 10 minutes) is by far the best stovetop method for brown rice.

Martha Stewart's recommended technique (50 minutes steaming, 10 minutes resting) is quite similar.

Alton Brown recommends baking technique which may be delicious but is almost certainly the one that will heat your house the most:  putting rice in a casserole covered with boiling water, and baking at 375°F for 1 hour.

You have actually asked two different questions:

What is the fastest way to cook rice (duration)?
What is the most energy efficient way to cook rice (least heating of your house)?

These are not the same thing.

Something to consider:  of all liquid non-metals (and I don't think any of us are going to cook in molten iron), water has the the highest capacity to transfer heat.

It is going to be very difficult to find a way to cook rice that is faster (at least for actual time cooking the rice, when not counting bringing water to the boil) than the traditional pasta method, as often employed in some parts of India:  Bring water to a boil, add the rice, cook until done, and drain.  However, the energy required to bring all of the surplus water to the boil and the enthalpy of vaporization will make this fast, but not efficient.

Your most energy efficient rice production method (and this is by the very laws of physics which govern our universe is also the one that will add the least heat to your home) is almost certainly a rice cooker, which will heat only until it senses the rice is done.  (Of course, what the rice cookers are really measuring is the rise in temperature when the water is all absorbed or evaporated, and so the temperature can rise; therefore, starting with the correct ratio of rice to water is critical).

The bottom line:  brown rice takes time to cook.   Some rice cookers, however, let you set a timer so that the pot will have the rice ready when you come home.  This might be your best bet.


How can I add a savory note to (or otherwise improve) a sweet, cream based salad dressing?

Frequently the savory notes in a cream based salad dressing would be from a pungent cheese of some sort, like bleu or Parmesan. You could also try cutting some of the cream with buttermilk to reduce sweetness. Beyond that, it will really depend on what the rest of your ingredients are. Adding garlic powder or onion powder could also help depending on what flavor you're going for.


Besides cooking some of the components (if you roll your own pasta or use some dry pasta sheets that don't have to be pre-cooked and can be assembled directly as long as they're submerged in sauce or they'll burn) the point of baking is to enhance flavor by forming a crust on top and to melt any cheese that you put between the layers (e.g. grated parmesan, some put mozzarella or provolone cubes). But mostly crust and flavor.

Personal opinion: as Italian, I could not think of a crustless lasagna.


Why are fresh eggs useful when cooking meringue

From my own personal experience, I've always found using aged egg whites made fabulous meringues. Aging the whites in a covered bowl removes some of the water content for a more stable aeration.


What is a good subsitute for Mirliton (aka Chayote)?

Mirltons are a member of the squash family, but have a traslucent, soft-crisp texture which isn't really exactly like any other squash.  In recipes where they are an incidental ingredient, you can generally substitute zucchini (especially if you peel and seed it) without too much trouble, but in recipes where they are a main flavor they are hard to substitute.

And, as Mien points out, it never really works to substitute the main ingredient in a recipe.  I suggest that your daughter wait for midsummer and check out Mexican or Indian groceries until she finds some.


Cookies rise nicely in the oven, but then collapse

First of all: What does cause the collapse?

The ammonium carbonate creates carbon dioxide under heat, which creates the gas bubbles that expand the dough. The gas bubbles are kept in place by a network of glutenin molecules, which make the dough elastic.

When your dough collapses after some time, it basically means that your glutenin network broke, much like a rubber band that was stretched too far. The carbon dioxide escapes and you have the not quite satisfying end result.

As you reach a level of carbon dioxide you are content with during baking, the best solution seems to be to just use less ammonium carbonate.


How to cook bison burgers (a.k.a. buffalo burgers)?

The temperature is 160 F (71 C) is not referring to the setting of your stove but to the internal temperature that the meat should reach. You measure this using an instant read thermometer. Just put your oven on medium to medium-high heat and shoot for 3 minutes per side and see what temperature it has reached at that time. It will depend on how thick the patties are.

It's also important to let the meat thaw before using. Don't try to cook any meat frozen. Your burgers should be first thawed in your refrigerator and then brought to room temperature for 30 minutes to an hour prior to cooking.

In case you aren't aware, bison is a much leaner meat than beef and thus benefits greatly from not being cooked well-done. If you trust the quality of your bison shoot for rare to medium-rare.


How does sous vide cooking time affect moisture (final weight) of meat?

Imagine cooking one steak at 140F for 1 hour and another for 5 hours. Will the 5 hour steak be drier and weigh less?
Briefly: Yes, it will be drier, and yes, it will weigh less.  And no, 140F isn't the tipping point, though higher temperatures definitely will dry things out faster.  Moisture loss will increase with increased sous vide time even at 131F (the minimum temp I'd recommend for long cooking).  It likely will happen at even lower temperatures too.
For one set of experiments in this regard, see these two posts, which compare moisture loss with different duration, different temperatures, and also a comparison with a reverse sear/oven method.
To summarize the relevant bit:

How long is too long?
It depends on the thickness of meat of course, but here is some data for 1.25-1.5 inch steaks:
131F for 100 minutes -- 6.1% juice release during serving
131F for 3.5 hours -- 1.93% juice release during serving
131F for 5 hours -- 1.6% juice release during serving

Those results in juice release also mirror observed weight loss in the meat.  The 100-minute steak was 90% of its original (before sous vide) weight when pulled from the bag, while the 5-hour steak was 84% of its original weight when pulled from the bag.
I've observed similar patterns in my own sous vide cooking.  While there's a certain minimum time needed to bring a thick steak up to temperature and get the juices moving, going past that time will just result in a drier steak and less juiciness.  The effect is much more pronounced (in my experience) with ground beef, which seems to dry out quite a bit even at low temperatures with prolonged sous vide cooking even at low temperatures (likely due to the greatly increased surface area that can release juices).

I had hoped that Serious Eats would weigh in on this, but interestingly they don't.  In that link, they note that the meat changes texture with long cooking, but claim that a 24-hour steak "is still plenty juicy (a steak cooked 24 hours loses barely any more moisture than a steak cooked for one hour)" but there are no accompanying stats to explain that claim or how much "barely any more moisture" might be.  I've personally noticed that steaks seem to get drier with more liquid in the bag with long cooks, so now I don't tend to go past an hour or so myself unless it's a very thick cut or I deliberately want to focus on tenderness over juiciness.

EDIT: For those who want more than a random blogger's word on this, or who question the metrics in that post for how "juicy" a steak might seem to be when you eat it, here's a scientific paper showing that perceived juiciness decreases with increased sous vide time (even at low temperatures).  As that paper has a paywall, there's a summary of the findings in this blog post.

EDIT2: In response to a comment that the sample size was not large enough in the blog post, here's an entire master's thesis on cooking sous vide, which shows that "cook loss" (i.e., moisture loss during cooking) increases with sous vide time.  One of the studies (n=14 samples) in that thesis shows a statistically significant difference in longer cook times at 55C (131F): after two hours, cook loss was about 14%, whereas at 10 hours and 30 hours, it increased to about 19.5%.  The second study (n=40 samples) compares shorter times and various temperatures and does not show a statistically significant (p < 0.5) trend at 55C for 2, 4, 6, and 8 hour cooks.   But the graph still indicates an overall trend toward greater moisture loss with greater time past 2 hours even at 55C.  For higher temperatures (60C/140F or above), the increased cook time definitely increases moisture loss significantly, from about 14% at 2 hours to about 22% at 8 hours at 60C/140F.  At 70C (158F), the effect of time is even greater, increasing moisture loss from about 20% at 2 hours to about 32% after 8 hours.  The literature review toward the beginning of the thesis also lists several other published studies that have shown similar trends.
I also would note that cook loss only indicates that less moisture is present in the meat.  Perceived "juiciness" is a somewhat different thing, as that depends on free moisture that can be easily released during eating and chewing.  Which is why I also linked a study in my first edit above about the perception of juiciness (which declines with increased sous vide time), along with the actual decrease in moisture in the meat.


Dried and Salted Fish Fillets (e.g. cod) Sous Vide

The purpose for salting fish is to cure it (originally for preservation). It does not need to be cooked. The reason for soaking and/or boiling salted fish is to remove the excess salt and to rehydrate the fish for consumption. Sous vide probably doesn't make sense in the preparation of salted fish, but I'd be curious how it comes out. You should soak to remove salt to taste. Be sure to taste the inner flesh when testing for saltiness.

For sous vide preparation, I would suggest soaking in cold water to remove enough salt and then cooking at a lower temperature. 50°C is a good temperature, but you can go even lower for salted fish. You might experiment as low as 40°.


Can I mix cutting boards when I dishwash them

I'm not sure I  understand the question.  In a cleaning situation, where you are using soap and water, there is no reason you can not clean your boards together. Once you have clean boards, there is no reason they cannot be stored together. The potential issue is cross-contamination.  If there are no contaminates, there is no issue.


What is the proper way to cool sushi rice after cooking?

It looks like your process is the accepted one around the web.

If you put a cool, damp (not wet), clean kitchen towel on your counter and fold the rice on top of it in front of a fan may help to cool it more quickly. Otherwise, cooling it to room temperature just seems to take a bit of time.


Fat will melt at high temperature (temperature depends on the type of fat); there is not real way to get away from that.

If you pan fry a steak, the fat will melt into the pan; that is why most people suggest a good "marbling" of fat in the meat so not all of it will melt away.

One cooking method, that I think will help keep most of the fat in the meat is low temperature vacuum cooking.

Put the meat in vacuum sealed bag and cook at low temperature (check instructions) in a water bath; after a while, the meat will be cooked and the fat will not have melt away; just finish in a pan to sear the outside.

See:
https://www.thekitchn.com/sous-vide-cooking-this-is-the-best-steak-ive-ever-had-197056


Dividing Pizza dough to balls before baking

Probably so that the gluten can relax before you go for the final forming.

By forming it into a ball you are starting it towards "pizza pie disk shape" from "formless mass of dough." If it rests for 10 minutes or more in that shape, proceeding to further shape it into a disk will go easier (and further, if desired), with less spring-back from the gluten network.

I use roughly the same process in making bagels or long strips for braiding. You can work it until it just won't go anymore, take a break, and come back to find it pliable and willing to stretch further.


I would say it's totally up to you.

I prefer it with the skin still on, it get's really juicy inside. However it's a bit more difficult to eat. So perhaps if you were making it for kids (although, you could just skin them after they are fried), you could skin it.

One opportunity I really think is better without skin is when you serve it with sauce. Having to fiddle around with the skin covered in sauce is not really handy nor fun.


Is "parboiling" chicken stupid (or wasteful)?

Chicken breast is so lean and bland already that I'm not sure this method would really be that much worse than a different method especially when being shredded and mixed with strong flavors.

I don't think it's wasteful unless it is not eaten, but a far better way would be slow cooked and then shredded thigh meat. It is fattier, but in my opinion, a far more delicious part of the bird. It is stronger flavor wise, has an unctuous that chicken breast can't touch, and is cheaper.

Back on topic, if you really wanted to prove the value in either grilling or slow cooking the chicken breast. Do two batches next time: one half is yours and one half is theirs. You should definitely marinade yours if you want to win :)


How do you know if cookies are undercooked?

Cookies are a kind of an informal treat. Tastes vary on the degree of done-ness that is best.

If your cookies won't hold together well enough to take them off the baking sheet with a spatula, or if parts of them are obviously still very gooey/runny, then they are undercooked. Otherwise, the best way to tell is to sample one (after it has cooled enough to eat). If you feel it is undercooked, then leave the next batch in a little longer.

Some people like their cookies "rare" (still a little soft and moist in the middle), and others prefer them well browned and fully cooked until they are firm all the way through. It's an individual judgement with no officially correct standard.


Stovetop Waffle Iron vs Electric Waffle Maker

In the past, I've used both but haven't used a waffle iron in the last 30 years even though I still own one. (OK: TBH: the waffle iron is hanging on the wall as decoration and a reminder to my grandmother)

There's just no substitute for a real Belgian Waffle maker because the plates are interchangeable and you can make:

Brussels waffles
Liège waffles
Waffle cookies
Fruit waffles
Croque Monsieur
and so many more yummie Belgian things

whereas one waffle iron can only make one kind of waffles...

¯\_(ツ)_/¯


Would it really be possible to cook a fish in clay?

Baking fish in clay is like baking the fish in an impromptu duch oven: it keeps the moisture inside the meat, unlike roasting the fish on a skewer.

The clay should impart only very little flavour. If you use the clay directly on the fish, the skin typically sticks to the clay and is removed with the clay. Other methods wrap the fish in large leaves first and then in clay. Hay is also used occasionally, also for flavour. In all cases, the clay won't actually touch the bits you eat.

As for cooking times, this varies greatly, depending on

the size of the fish
the thickness of the clay layer
the heat and position in, on or next to the fire.

Sources vary from "ten to fifteen minutes on each side" (small trout in 1/2 inch of clay, right in the embers (1)) to "up to three hours" (2 inch thick clay layer, baked in heated stones and covered with soil (2)). The clay layer should be totally solid by the time the fish is done and depending on the type of clay, might show some cracks.


Is a vacuum strictly necessary for sous-vide cooking?

Yep, Ziploc bags are fine although make sure you have ones that are appropriately heat sensitive for whatever temperatures you'll be cooking at. There's a good guide on the Cooking Issues blog:

http://www.cookingissues.com/primers/sous-vide/part-ii-low-temperature-cooking-without-a-vacuum/#sectionII3b1

  Fill a container with water deep enough to easily submerge your food and bag.
  Always add some sort of liquid to the bag –fat, stock, sauce, etc. The liquid is necessary to fill the gaps around your food and expel the air from the bag.
  Add your food item. A significant advantage of Ziplocs over vacuum bags is that the food can be added to the bag hot. All vacuum bagging procedures require your food to be cold (more on that in the upcoming vacuum section of the primer). If you are searing meat and adding it directly to the Ziploc bag make sure the surface of the meat is below 100˚C (212˚F) or the bag will melt. Be especially careful to not touch the bag with a hot set of tongs or spatula.
  Close the seal of the bag almost to the edge, leaving the last portion of the seal open –make sure you have correctly sealed the bag. Put your finger in the corner to make sure that part of the seal is open.
  Carefully immerse the bag in the water starting with the closed corner, not the open one. Make sure you do this step carefully, allowing air to escape up and out of the open corner.
  Just as the open part of the seal is about to go under the water, close it up.


How to grow sourdough starter for increased production?

I've only baked at home, not commercially, but something sounds amiss if you're throwing away a ton of starter. [And wow, having a multi-lb starter!]

You throw away starter to keep your starter from getting too big, when you're not baking with it. And I'd hope a commercial bakery is always baking with it.

Example: if your starter is 4lbs and you're keeping half (so feeding 1lb flour, 1lb water), then you discard 2lbs, which you promptly replace with the new flour & water. This keeps your starter at 4lbs consistently. Ideally, that 2lbs removed from the starter is what you'd use for your baking (possibly after doubling it, to feed it).

You don't have to remove the 2lbs, either. You can just add 2lbs flour + 2lbs water, doubling your 4lb starter to an 8lb starter.


The American Society for Nutrition explains it thus:

The answer has to do with some interesting physiology unique to sea
creatures.Water in the open ocean is about 3% salt by weight, but the
optimal levels of dissolved minerals inside an animal cell is less
than 1%.In order to maintain fluid balance, ocean creatures must fill
their cells with amino acids and amines to counter the saltiness of
seawater. Ocean fish tend to rely on trimethylamine oxide (TMAO) for
this purpose.

Now this compound does not in itself have a particularly pungent odour, however:

The problem is that when fish are killed, bacteria and fish enzymes
convert TMAO into trimethylamine (TMA), which gives off the
characteristic “fishy” odor.This smell can be reduced in two ways.TMA
on the surface of the fish can be rinsed off with tap water.Treating
the fish with acidic ingredients such as lemon, vinegar, or tomato can
also cause TMA to bind to water and become less volatile.Thus the odor
compounds do not reach the nose.

This trimethylamine is something that is produced in small quantities by our own gut microbes, and usually is no trouble when kept under control - some however are unfortunatley prone to "Fish Odour Syndrome".

I am not able to find any definitive evidence for the reason that nori smells of fish, however, an uncorroborated suggestion behind the scenes on a Wikipedia wiki page states this:

Please. Fish smells of algae, not the other way around! For the same
reason DHAs are not "fish oils", but "algae oils".--Rfsmit

Bolding Mine

As they are so ubiquitous in nature it would seem likely that the bacteria that convert the TMAO into TMA and make the smell would be present on the algae as well as in the fish and in our own guts.

Conclusion.

I'd claim that the bacteria and what it eats and it's waste products are to blame for the similar smell: it would seem to be the case that Japanese Nori (There mis-classified as genus Porphyra) contains amino acids and nutrients not inconsistent with the culprit bacteria growing on it (As it also like fish flesh). As I say I can not offer anything definitive.


The Beef Heel of Round represents a cut from the beef round immediately above the hock. This roast is composed of many small muscle groups, has a lot of seam fat, and is one of the least tender cuts of beef.

Braising for long periods of time works best for that cut.

Bottom round is rump roast and the top part furthest away from the hock.

Source: https://animalscience.unl.edu/beef-meat-identification


Use the neck to make a pan sauce...or add it to other poultry parts when you make stock.


Salt mixed into hamburger results in patties that have the consistency of sausage instead of a good burger.

Brining is totally unnecessary for ground meat. It is a mechanism for conveying flavor into meat, helping reduce moisture loss, and increasing the illusion of tenderness. None of these are necessary with ground meat because it is ground! It will already be tender and flavorings can be mixed right in.

Don't mix salt into the beef. Apply it only on the surface when it is cooked.


How much "compounded" asafoetida to use?

Asafoetida is most commonly found in a "compounded" form.  It's about 30% asafoetida resin mixed with rice or wheat flour, and gum arabic.  Use it as your recipe directs.  It's fairly potent.  I use about 1/4 tsp at a time.


How to store smoked fish when traveling?

Are you sure it was fungus, if it was just a dust? I don't know what else it would be, but 8 hours seems short for that to grow.

In any case. Keep it very dry, perhaps by wrapping in parchment or muslin and packing in rock salt before sealing all in plastic. Cool it with ice, sealed in a separate plastic bag, or preferably gel freezer packs, also separate.

I've never been in that situation, so I can't say I've tested this advice.


On an electric stove, does the smaller burner produce fewer BTUs than the larger burner?

Electric stove elements have a different KW rating depending on construction and size

A typical spiral element of 200 mm (8") diameter will be 2 KW, a 150 mm (6") diameter element will be 1.3 KW

Different stove makes and models have different ratings. But not many go above 2 KW, except in USA where they go up to 3 KW

Stove makers usually publish exact specifications on their web sites

1 W is approximately 3.4 BTU


Can I substitute marmalade for peach preserves?

In addition to the sweetness, marmalade has a pronounced bitter flavor that could overpower the fish. It seems that others feel the same way — there are few online recipes for fish with marmalade, and of those few, most are for salmon which has a more robust taste of its own to balance out the marmalade. Perhaps something like an apricot preserve would be more in the spirit of the original recipe?


Does salt-seasoned pasta and starchy water in my sauce have to yield a salty sauce?

Since cooking the pasta in salted water is essential, and switching to fresh water or whatever is a PITA, I'd just use less water and thicken with something else.

The standard ratio for salting pasta water is 1:10:100 - 1 litre of water for 10g salt and 100g pasta - perhaps you're over-salting the water?


I put potentially malodorous food scraps in the trash if I know I will have enough to take the trash out that day (I hate wasting trash bags, blame my OCD). If not, I will put scraps in freezer bags and leave them in the fridge temporarily. The difference between freezer bags and regular plastic bags is they are much thicker and tougher. If you get a good quality bag the zipper part seals air-tight and the plastic will not breathe. The key here is don't be cheap: You get what you pay for.

Freezer bags easily hold in odors for several days until you have enough for a load of trash to take out to the dumpster.


Between 6-18 months is the usual number. Refrigeration isn't required, but certainly will help. Bailey's claims to be fine for two years, but no other site backs up their claim.

I can't find anything specific on "Jackson Morgan Cream Liqueur"; they don't seem to have any sort of expiration information on their site. I'd err on the side of caution and try to knock it out inside a year, and refrigerate when possible.

As with many other dairy based products, it's incredibly obvious when it begins to spoil. Taste, color, and texture will all go notably off before it becomes harmful to drink.

Citation

Other Citation


Best method to determine temperature while heating sugar

IR thermometers are not accurate enough for sugar work. They make some assumptions (like reflectivity of the surface) which are not exactly met in real life.

My way of making small amounts of sugar syrup is to use a small pot with a long handle. I have a 12 cm stainless steel one with a long handle that's very comfortable, and similar vessels exist in even smaller sizes. This has the added advantage of not having too thin a layer of syrup, which can overheat quickly.

If your amount is too small to fill even a tiny pot, you might consider simply making more than you need. Sugar is cheap (OK, I know honey isn't always, but I doubt that you need the best honey if you are heating it) and if you don't feel good at the thought of throwing away food, simply making enough additional syrup to have for two glasses of lemonade will probably be enough to work with a 8-cm pot.


The flavors are very similar (they are different parts of the fruit of the same tree, nutmeg being the nut itself, and mace being a covering that grows around the shell), although nutmeg tends to be slightly stronger and more forward.

in a complicated hot dog recipe, I imagine that the substitution should work well, although you might choose to try your first batch with 3/4 the amount.


Add more potatoes--they absorb the salt.  As would rice or pasta.


Use a aluminum plate or disc that your tagine can sit on. The plate needs a minimum thickness of 0.25 inch, any thinner and it may badly warp. The aluminum will heat very evenly, conduct heat better than cast iron, is much softer than glass or ceramic, and is much lighter than brass or cast iron.

Just don't leave it by itself on the stove, it can be damaged by overheating, similar to overheating other aluminum based cookware.

You can buy 6061 aluminum plates at metal suppliers, and even online at places like amazon.


All the ingredients used in curing are safe to eat, otherwise they would not be able to be used in a commercial sense. Typically cured meats of the sort that you describe are called something like "corned beef". These are produced using a curing salt that is composed of sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite along with regular table salt (sodium chloride). The sodium nitrate is the component responsible for the pink colour as it converts myoglobin in the muscle into the pink nitrosomyoglobin.
Corned meats can be cooked and eaten without boiling them, often by roasting. As roasting without boiling would result in you consuming all the salts in the meat without those lost in the boiling process, you can, by inference, assume that the broth is also safe to consume as it contains only a portion of the salts from the meat.
In addition, bacon and ham make excellent and delicious stocks, and these are often cured in a similar manner to corned beef, so your stock should be safe to eat.


What is this hot dog grilling machine called in everyday spoken English?

After looking at a few examples on Amazon, I'd go with "hot dog roller grill". There isn't any correct or non-correct way to say it, but any American would know what you mean.


What can I do to prolong vegetable and meat freshness in the freezer?

For most vegetables, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to retain their quality once they have been cut. Your efforts would be much better spent either improving your cutting/chopping proficiency or in cooking entire meals ahead of time. Also, you could prepare components, such as sauteed onions or peppers, and maintain relatively high-quality versions of those.

Meat is a different story. You can do preparations in advance, and freeze individual portions for later use without degrading quality.

The best way to avoid freezer burn is to have a very cold freezer (ironically, easing the cooling settings on your freezer was having the opposite of your desired effect), and to prevent your food from coming in contact with air. You can use a freezer bag for each food item, making sure you squeeze all the air out of it first. However, if you are really serious about this, you would be well-served by investing in a vacuum sealer. Air is the big enemy here, so mechanically removing air from the system will greatly extend freezer life.