How to rise and bake a sourdough loaf in the least amount of time?

Shorten the intervals for feeding, prove in a warm environment, use a high LA starter to begin with, (mine started life as a mix of live yoghurt, wheat flour& an apple from my garden). Highly acidic stable leavenings can be faster...  Mine doubles in size in 2hrs.


I actually have some experience with exactly this. I needed to do a breakfast party for a bunch of bikers, at 5am, by myself, in the middle of nowhere. The middle of nowhere in Alaska has a special meaning that would elude most readers of this. It's a special kind of middle-of-nowhere. So, I promise, I took it seriously, and this actually works:

You can cook the bacon two days in advance. Here's the thing, you've got to do it the oven, slowly enough that you can control curling. Bake it on a sheetpan at no more than 375F (190C), flip the bacon half-way through and turn the pan front to back. Figure 18 minutes total, but don't let it get crisp. Stop just shy of crisp. You can use foil or parchment paper to facilitate clean-up. Put the not-quite-crisp bacon in Ziplocs in the fridge.

The very final crisp can be done at most a couple of hours in advance, it will get chewy if you try to add the final crisp sooner than that. You can use any method that works for the final crisp, even the microwave. Of course a griddle is ideal.


I looked at five recipes, none of them called for the foie gras to be chopped.

You have already cleaned the liver, and have a different method chosen to form the ballotines, but I really liked these instructional photos from The Renaissance Girl Cooks describing the method from The Squire (a restaurant with two Michelin stars), and thought that later users might find them helpful.


How briny should the water be when soaking broccoli to remove bugs?

Ah... I remember doing this growing up. Usually used a small handful of table salt in a sink full of water, and the worms would be floating on the top after about 5-10 minutes.

Most of the worms.

Sorry I can't give you a more precise ratio; I actually suspect soaking in water does more good than the salt - the worms don't swim.

At least, most of them don't.


Preventing Noodles from Sticking to the pot

When noodles or pasta is cooked in too little water, the starch released during cooking has nowhere to go, hence the stickiness.

If you are cooking plain noodles or macaroni, I would use at least twice the volume of water to noodles, preferably more depending on the size of pot available to you.

If you are cooking the "instant" variety that comes in a packet with pre-made flavourings, I would follow the package instructions but use a lower heat setting on your cooker, and ensure you give them a stir every so often. That way, the sauce will not thicken or evaporate so quickly.


How to make fluffy (not crunchy) quinoa?

Quinoa is cooked exactly like rice. In fact- if you have a rice cooker you can use that and not worry about it.
Your procedure is ok. This is the way I make my quinoa.

Toasting grains in oil before steaming them is delicious and results in grains that are more nutty and more individual. Rice is nice this way so there is less risk of making rice paste.

If you are having trouble with your grain not rehydrating properly, the first thing to try would be to skip the oil step. It isn't required.

If you find that your water is evaporating before the quinoa is steamed then it is likely that your lid isn't tight enough.


Deep frying with tallow in a stainless steel pot

I don't think you will have the risk of fire, as long as you keep the oil in the pot. Temperature will modulate more quickly than in cast iron, but it is not going to vary much within the pot itself.  I use a wok because the slanted sides make for safer deep-frying. So, you don't need cast iron.   In a pot, you need to be careful that when you add your ingredients, the oil does not boil over.  So, I would recommend filling less than 1/2 way, and using a thermometer to monitor the temperature.


Do you need a stock for carbonade flamande

I'm Flemish and I don't use stock at all:

butter
half an onion,
beef
a nice coat of mustard smeared on top of peperkoek:

ginger bread will do nicely as well
use "Appenzeller Biberli" if you want to give it a Swiss twist and call it "Carbonade Suisse"

pepper, salt, nutmeg
the darkest non-bitter beer you can find (Any Flemish beer would be better though)...

:-)


Difference between boiling and steaming vegetables?

To boil vegetables, you add the vegetables to a pot of water, and boil the water for a short duration until the vegetables are sufficiently cooked.  One may add salt or other flavorings (such as broth, as you mentioned) to the water prior to boiling.

Steamed vegetables are cooked in a steamer basket, where the vegetables are not in the water, but are instead sitting above the water, and are thus cooked by steam.

Salt must be added to steamed vegetables after they are cooked rather than to the water prior to cooking, since salt does not evaporate.

Steamed vegetables can retain more of their original flavor and nutrients, since they do not leech out into the water during boiling.  On the other hand, you cannot add additional flavors to your vegetables during steaming--since flavors cannot soak into the vegetables from the water, either.

Which taste/texture you prefer, of course, can be a matter of personal opinion.

In my experience, boiled vegetables are often mistakenly referred to as steamed vegetables.  And often, many restaurants will sell "steamed vegetables" which are really just microwaved frozen vegetables, which may strictly be steamed (it certainly isn't boiled!), but really bears little resemblance to the true steaming process (and has relatively poor flavor, as well).


What islands use a cooking technique that starts with sugar and hot sauce in the pan?

Sounds like the technique for Pelau, from Trinidad, only with hot sauce added. I don't think it has a name other than "pan fry/sear in caramelized sugar"


No!! Not a good idea. The moment rand is removed. Oxidation starts to place. This will add more bitter to the fruit and when you rush the oranges into the machine. Your juice is definitely having that oxidized bitterness. Thumb rule, the moment you extract the juice it is ready to server or if not served immediately then you are betting on bitter taste.


I think it is a fruit called Chambakka.

There are a few recipes for chambakka achaar, which means pickled chambakka.

But I would try this chambakka jelly recipe. It looks delicious!


What are substitutions for coconut in curry?

Thai curry recipes often use a lot, and the flavour is distinctive. You'll need to experiment. Your idea of cashews is a good place to start. What I've often used in Indian curries is ground almonds (almond flour would be better but I can't get it easily). They have some thickening power and quite a suitable taste. You could also try cooking with nut milk - I've only done this a couple of times because it's not something I normally have, but recently used some almond milk in a sauce with lentils etc. It ended up with a fairly creamy texture. This was a brand marketed for cooking and a little thicker than I've come across before

As an aside, I hope you've had medical confirmation of the allergy - it's not exactly unknown for these things to be deceptive.


What are the names of the three main parts of my metal spatula?

I don't think there are any 'official' names, but I suggest:

Handle
Blade
Shaft


If I want my garlic to taste in a very specific way (with bite or without bite) what should I do?

Garlic strength is mainly down to how much you cook the garlic, and how finely you chop it (different varieties of garlic notwithstanding). Simply put, the less you cook it and the finer you chop it, the more bite it will have.

So you can alter those variables to achieve the effect you want. If you want super punchy garlic, chop it finely and use it raw. If you want mellow, rich garlic, cook it slowly, whole, and it will turn sweet and sticky. If you want something in between, slice and saute until light golden brown.

Garlic burns very quickly, so a very high heat is generally a bad idea, unless you are very careful to keep the garlic moving. There is a fine line between nicely toasted garlic and blackened, bitter garlic.


Squeezing as much liquid as possible out of a stock: a practical approach?

Not difficult at all if you truly want to get every possible last drop. Choose a large clean tea towel for this purpose only. After you've drained most of the liquids out, line your colander with the tea towel and pour the last bit with meat and vegetables in. I found using clothespins to the towel in place is best. Gather the corners up and you can either use a heavy thick elastic to secure the contents into a bagged ball or use heavy twine tied around it. I prefer twine. Less risk of breaking and you've got a long end to hang the ball.

I've done similar but not with soup stock as I always use meat with bones. If you tie one end of the twine up (on a cupboard door handle, for instance),you can put a bowl under it to catch the stock. Start at the top of the ball so when you squeeze, ut runs down lower. Work your way to the bottom. I doubt you'll be able to extract much more after that.

Make sure you scrape the remains off the tea towel right afterward and rinse off any bits left on. Then rinse well and include in the laundry. Otherwise, it's just about impossible to clean later. I know as I got busy with other things and forgot.


The importance of timing to adding spices

Not directly.

Many spices gain, change or lose taste when heat-treated. You must know given spice and when to add it.

Fresh dill or parsley leaves, after a hour of simmering are worthless, losing all aroma. Add at the very end of cooking.

Black pepper changes its taste and loses spiciness under heat. You can add it twice, the pepper added early contributing completely differently than added late.

Paprika doesn't change much over first few hours, so it really doesn't matter - unless you leave it in slow cooker for 8+ hours. It will turn acrid and unpleasant.

Fresh garlic is entirely different than garlic that underwent even several minutes of heat treatment - and garlic that was heat-processed, in order, doesn't change much in time, but infuses other products, so your choices are between fresh (sharp, spicy taste), thickly chopped cooked shortly (strong nodes of garlic taste, as ingredient, not spice) or boiled long (the taste infusing the food.)

Salt doesn't change taste over time (although it may infuse foods deeper) but affects many processes. Water boils at higher temperature, resulting in pasta or potatoes cooked better; some meats get much harder so it should be added late; vegetables go soft very fast and "drop" resulting in more evenly distributed frying heat (so salt fried veggies early)...

Cumin fried on clean, dry pan (no oil) in high temperature gets a significantly different, very strong, pleasant aroma. You won't obtain it by normal boiling or frying with other foodstuffs, no matter how long, as this requires higher temperatures than others. Fry it first, and only add other ingredients when it's ready.

Each spice has its caveats concerning adding time. Sometimes you need to add them at the very end - especially fresh herbs. In other cases (like salt) the time depends on the foodstuffs - early for vegetables, late for meats.


When baking meatballs for a soup, do I have to bake until the meat is fully cooked?

It doesn't matter in which modality (banking, simmering) you bring the meatballs up to temperature, only that you do.

Normally, if you are cooking them in the oven first, it is for browning generate additional flavor.  Otherwise, you could simply simmer them from the beginning, which is perfectly viable.


Is it safe to use a HydroFlask (vacuum flask) with scratches on the inside?

Hydro Flasks don't have an interior lining, they're just food grade stainless steel. You'll be perfectly fine using the bottle as you would otherwise.


Is it safe to use a 2 burner reversible griddle on an electric stove?

I would think that this setup is not causing a safety issue.  Since you are not using a gas grill, there is actually less to worry about with it being flush, as there is no burner to potentially snuff out, which would cause a gas buildup.  Also, Lodge's website states under the Use And Care tab that their reversible griddles are good for any stove type, and do not have warnings against using it in such a manner, you should be fine.

From my experience, these are perfectly safe, although you will want to make sure that you have your heating coils (if you have them) flat and flush with the burner trays, so that you achieve optimal heating and ease of use.


Are there substitutes for Parmesan without the aged cheese flavor?

A common replacement for Parmesan among vegans is to use a combination of kelp powder, nutritional yeast, and ground sesame seeds and walnuts, and salt. It works in about anything that won't require the cheese to melt. The kelp and nutritional yeast provide umami, the seeds and nuts provide a nutty flavor and some fat, and the salt... well, adds the missing saltiness. It hits most of the same notes as Parmesan without having the "funk".


It is definitely possible to oversalt pasta water. I managed it when cooking soup noodles. I used a very small pot with to little water and then lost more water to evaporation, increasing the salinity.

This isn't to hard to avoid though. Generally one should make pasta in lots of water, and the water should taste like the ocean water.
It is very difficult to salt your noodles later.
According to gimmesomeoven the proper amount is

  1 pound of pasta : 1 tablespoon salt : 4 quarts (16 cups) water

This sounds similar to what I have heard from others as well.
This answer says the relationship between salt in the water and the uptake from the noodles is linear, more salt = saltier noodles.

One thing I add to pasta water sometimes (especially for some one pot dishes where the noodles are boiled with a lot less water, which means you can't salt as much as it will all end up in the dish) is soup boullion powder. Another recipe is drunken noodles where the pasta water contains red wine, turning the noodles red.

I think that if something is added in significant amounts and is dissolved into the water then it will flavor the pasta. Pepper is probably not dissolved into the water and I don't think it would bring much at this stage.


There's a few questions you've asked in your answer, some explicitly, and some implicitly, so I've summarised the questions as I see them.

1) Is Chilli powder just powdered chillies, or a blend of other spices to create the dish "chilli"?

Both. As you've seen in your experience, this is a case of overloaded etymology, where confusion arises from the common name of the Capsicum genus of berries: chilli (or chili) peppers, and the mexican dish "chili".

As for which came first seems to be a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem, as some sources say the dish is called chili because it was made with chili peppers, and some say they're called chilli peppers as they're the main component of the dish. Couldn't find a verifiable source for a definitive answer on this one.

2) When was the spice blend variant Chilli Powder invented (globally)

A cursory internet search leads to the article "The man who invented chili powder"[1], which covers the invention of the spice blend.

  The family further claims that DeWitt invented chili powder, the now ubiquitous blend of ground chile pods and spices used to season chili, which may very well be true. It was certainly invented in Texas. Chili historian Joe Cooper credits William Gebhardt, a German immigrant, with first pulverizing dried chiles in a meat grinder in New Braunfels in 1896. But Fort Worth was electrified more than a decade earlier, and so, probably thanks to a mechanized chile chopper, DeWitt was already marketing a chili blend called Chiltomaline in local newspapers by 1890.

Cultures have been drying and grinding herbs and spices for millenia, so "powdered chillies" is nothing new, and indeed, would be my preferred distinction for referring to it rather than the blend.

3) When did the spice blend come to the UK?

As the blend was invented around 1890, at some point after that when someone thought it was a good idea to import it. Regarding it's stocking as such in UK supermarkets, there's not likely to have been a shift in one vs the other at any given point as the confusion will probably have existed since 1890.

4) How do I know which one is which?

The only way is to look at the ingredient list, which as you say will either just list chilli (although usually not the particular variant of chilli - or chillies, which is probably quite common to get a more complex flavour profile), or the other spices which have been blended. The Morrisons link you've given actually says in the description "pure chilli powder", corroborating the suggestion that it's not a spice blend.

[1] https://penderys.com/news/d-magazine-july-2018


We've slow cooked gammon in (full sugar) coke before, and what happens is that all the CO2 comes out in the first few minutes as it comes up to temperature. So if you start (as we do and most recipes suggest) by bringing the cooking liquid to the boil the foaming will happen while you're standing over it.

This makes sense as gases are less soluble in hot liquids than cold; in fact I've used heating in the lab to drive off dissolved gas.

Most of the sugar is poured away in the cooking liquid, so there's not much benefit (in terms of calories) from using diet. If you plan to finish the gammon off with direct heat for browning, sugary coke is likely to give a nicer finished item (colour, flavour and smell). Some sweeteners go bitter when cooked too hot (and the reaction products may not be good to eat), while sugar caramelises.


A meringue with nuts in it is called a "japonaise".  If you search this, you will see many different recipes for a nutty meringue.  All meringues are crunchy in the beginning but become moist when left out or filled, provided they are properly cooked in the beginning.  I wouldn't worry about the texture as long as you use the meringues right away or store them properly (wrapped air tight and in a dry place - NO HUMIDITY).


Yes, Skyr has only 0.2-0.5% fat, as it’s traditionally made from low-fat or skimmed milk.

We tend to perceive Skyr as a yogurt variety, but technically it’s a cheese: Like yogurt it’s made by adding either Skyr from a previous batch or a mix of bacteria to raw (traditional) or pasteurized (modern concession to food safety) milk and then cultured, but unlike yogurt traditional recipes also use a bit of rennet. This detail may be relevant for vegetarians, depending on the kind of rennet used.

If you are missing the creaminess of 6%-fat yogurt, note that Skyr is typically served with fruit, milk and often sweetened. You could add a splash of cream instead and see if that’s more to your liking.


Flint corn has a very hard outer layer to it.  If it's mature and dried, you may need to simmer it for some time, then attempt to work the hull off.

There was an episode of 'My Grandmother's Ravioli', where they made an indian corn soup.  The recipe posted online calls for nixtamalization:

  Remove the corn kernels from each ear by using your thumb to push kernels up and off the cob.
  Heat a large cast-iron pot over medium-high heat. Add the kernels, the hardwood ash and water to cover by 4 inches. Bring to a boil and cook for 1 hour, or until most of the hulls have fallen off the kernels. Strain through a drying screen or colander. Rinse the corn with fresh water until all the ash is removed and the water runs clear.


How can I mellow the taste of this goat cheese

Have you tried anything involving cooking the cheese?

I have a feeling that some of the goatiest (not a word but it should be) goat's cheese is mellowed a little by heat. You could try thin slices on (part of) a pizza, or warming it, pressing it onto toast and finishing under a grill or with a blowtorch. The usual accompaniment to that would be a green salad including some strongly flavoured (peppery or bitter) leaves, which would also compete with the flavour.


No, the temperature remains at 170C, fan ovens heat faster because the air is kept moving. It's the opposite to wind chill, where it feels colder because the wind is blowing more cold air molecules over you than if it was calm. In an oven the fan is blowing hot air over the food, making more hot air molecules touching the food per second than without the fan.


First, there are two terms for 'soaking a piece of meat in liquid' and they are often used interchangeably and/or in error:

Marinate: A surface treatment of meat in which the meat becomes coated with a flavorful liquid called a marinade (the sauce is the 'marinade', the soaking is 'to marinate', though marinade is often used as the verb).
Brine: A deep penetrating treatment of meat in which meat is submerged in a saline (salt) solution
(related topics would include rubs and glazes)

Chemically these are two very different actions but colloquially they are often confused. The maximum effect of a marinade can be achieved in a matter of hours and is strictly a 'surface treatment'. A brine is always salt based and takes anywhere from hours to days to reach maximum effect. The first description you provide is actually for a brine, as evidenced by the salt content and duration of the soak. The 'different style' you present is an actual marinade. For a more in depth discussion of this see:

The Secrets And Myths Of Marinades, Brinerades, And How Gashing Can Make Them Work Better

Recipes for either are varied and wide ranging, and I will reemphasize, commonly mislabeled (I'm not trying to be a grammar nazi here, but any discussion of the 'theory' requires a proper distinction)

As for that 'theory'...there are many opinions on this subject and I'll try to remain agnostic for this answer. Marinades usually breakdown into three components: fat, acid, and spice/seasoning the exact ratio is the subject of great debate but a good starting point is 3:1 fat-to-acid and season 'to taste'. Your fats can be one or more (melted butter and olive oil is a personal fave) as can the acids vinegar, buttermilk, citrus juice, beer, wine... (for marinades alcohol serves as an acid). Beyond that season as you please. Chili powder, red pepper, paprika to get a 'spicy' marinade. Rosemary, dill, garlic, provide rich flavors. So too sugars(white/brown/honey/molasses) will add depth to the flavors and will caramelize and enhance the maillard effect.

As for pork, in particular, using apple juice (or hard cider) as the acid is nice start, honey (or other sweets) are a good compliment. I personally like clove as a spice for pork tenderloin.

From here, let your imagination and your palate be your guide. Here are a few useful links to look a little deeper if you please:

Anatomy of a Marinade
How to make any Marinade
A Complete Guide to Marinates Meat

Beyond this...Google is your friend.


What kind of containers for homemade ice cream?

Restaurants solve this problem one of two ways:

Tough, professional-grade stainless or Lexan containers.  I suggest 4" to 6" deep 1/6 size hotel pans AKA steam table inserts, or lidded 2-4 quart Cambro containers.
Cheap, disposable quart delitainers.  These are actually reusable and dishwasher/microwave safe, but at $0.25-0.50 apiece, it doesn't matter if they break regularly!  Just remember to recycle the broken ones. You've probably seen these used for take-out soups in Chinese restaurants or delis, because they're cheap but work well.

For the first option, remember that professional-grade equipment is built to survive YEARS of punishing abuse, but you'll pay more for that quality.  Expect a pricetag of $5-7 or more for each of the smaller containers, or slightly less if you find a good restaurant supply store.  Sam's Club also carries some of that stuff.

The flipside is that you shouldn't ever have to replace the containers unless you do something really dumb, such as putting a pan hot off the stove down on the lid. For this reason I suggest planning ahead before making a purchase, because you want to get the right sizes for regular use.


Does Tapatio red sauce equate to Frank's hot pepper sauce?

I would say they are quite different. Tapatio is spicier, and thicker. Frank's Red Hot is thinner, has a more vinegary flavor, and is less spicy.


Two stage cooking is generally not a safe practice unless the food comes to at least 130-140F during the first stage, held there an adequate amount of time to kill off bacteria, then is chilled quickly, and then reheated relatively quickly.  Commercial food service has a lot of fairly complex rules dealing with these sort of "pre-cooked" and reheated situations, because they are one of the places where it's most likely to cause foodborne illness.

Since you likely wouldn't want to go to temperatures that high (and I don't blame you), I'd recommend cooking it all yourself at one time for safety reasons.

Also, aside from safety concerns, I agree with moscafj's comment: I'm not sure what the purpose would be here.  Is it to get some benefit from the "rotisserie"?  It's possible to get somewhat similar effects by roasting slowly (at low temperature) at home, even without a rotisserie.

EDIT: Since the OP has identified the goal as decreasing cooking time, I agree with AMtwo that this process won't help.  I'd only add to AMtwo's answer that it might actively hurt the quality of the final result, as both the butcher's rotisserie and OP's relatively high-heat oven temperature will likely cook the outer layers of the meat further, while leaving the interior very rare.  Doing this twice will actually compound this problem, so if the goal is a rare roast (as I'm guessing from the target temperatures mentioned), this will actually result in a thicker layer of more "done" meat near the edges with more time to dry out.  Better to just cook it once.


Is a pizza like this unheard of in the USA?

There is a fantastically wide range of pizza styles available in the US. The traditional American "fast food" pizza, such as one would get from Domino's or Pizza Hut, has a fairly thick, doughy crust, but thin-crust pizzas are nearly as widely available, and have become more common over the past two decades.
In the US, it's less common for pizzas to be ordered by a particular well-known "standard" name like "capricciosa" or "pugliese". A pizzeria will often have its own menu of topping combinations with their own names. Depending on the pizzeria, people might tend to order one of those, or they might be more likely to specify the full set of toppings directly, e.g. "ham and mushroom" (definitely not an uncommon combination, and one that would be available from virtually any pizzeria).
I've only had pizza in Sweden once, but what I had would not have been at all unique or remarkable in the US.


Is it okay to cover food in the fridge with paper plates?

Ideally you should get airtight containers, but failing that, plastic wrap is indeed a lot better than just covering with a plate.

As you say, you'll tend to get more smells mixing around in the fridge if things aren't airtight, and it's something that can kind of build up over time, with the interior of the fridge just taking on a mix of all the smells. (Fridges can eventually smell weird even if you're not doing this.)

It's also not generally as good for the food; it'll dry out faster. Might not be an issue for everything, but sometimes it can be pretty obvious. It may also get contaminated a little more easily and spoil faster, but that's a little random, hard to say anything specific about time periods.


Here's a scientific breakdown:

Sourdough starter is the primary leavening agent in any sourdough, including your hybrid here. Technically, it's just water and flour. The flour already has all the yeasts and bacterial spores it needs to ferment, and the water activates the fermentation process via an enzyme called amylase.

The amylase breaks down the starch in the flour into sugars, which the yeast will metabolize, producing carbon dioxide gas. Anything in the sugars that the yeast can't eat will be fermented over time by the bacteria, producing more amylase and breaking down the sugars further so that the yeast can eat it. The bacteria creates lactic acid as a byproduct of this process, giving sourdough its unique "sour" flavor.

However, the same process that breaks down the sugars in sourdough starter can also break down the proteins in the dough. This gives you weaker gluten - or, a denser, chewier bread than what you'd obtain with only baker's yeast. On top of that, your bread is a hybrid, which means there's even more yeast in it than usual and even more leavening. More leavening, more enzyme production by the bacteria, more potential for protein breakdown.


The ingredients I used in my recipe were too cold and they did not mix well. Is there anything I can do to fix this

There are three points I'd like to suggest.

First, letting the mixture sit and come up to room temperature might help - especially if your recipe called for warmer ingredients.  Or you might even look to set it someplace slightly warmer (near any mild heat source like you might need for dough) that might warm and soften your mixture a bit before trying to mix it again.

Second, as Dorothy mentioned, the lumpy texture may subside when mixed with the dry ingredients.  One of the things that can work when smoothing lumps is to dry out the mixture enough to make a paste, and slowly loosen to a smooth liquid.  It is possible that the dry ingredients will be enough to incorporate and smooth out any lumps in your mixture.

Third, and my favorite possibility - to misquote from a question about eggs - with an immersion blender and a sufficient amount of violence, there is much that is possible.  If you have an immersion blender (or, yeah, even if you have a regular one - I just like the immersion ones better) - you can just blend the ingredients together, and count on the blender's mechanical thrashing, and possibly a bit of friction heat, to smooth your wet ingredient mix back down to smooth.

If the liquid in your bowl isn't very deep, an immersion blender might spray the batter around, true - but it actually doesn't take that much.  If the blades of the blender are submerged (say, ~1 inch), an immersion blender can run for short bursts, if the whole head is under the batter (~1.5 inches) it can likely be blended for longer times without trying to fling batter around - and the bowl can be tilted for blending at the angle for the right thickness.  I find it simpler to use and rinse the immersion blender in the bowl than fussing about transferring the batter to other containers to blend or mix in.

Although while I prefer immersion blenders, you might also try a regular blender, or a mixer, or even a milk frother (depending on amount, power, and viscosity of your mixture) to beat the lumps out of the mix and leave it nice and frothy.  You might, if the liquid is thin and the lumps are stiff, slowly start adding some of the dry ingredients to thicken the mixture (the lumps blend better the closer everything is to the same texture), and keep blending everything smooth.

In any case, once the mix has been beaten down into smoothness, you can continue your recipe, folding in the rest of the dry ingredients and continuing from there.

Good luck, I hope it all turns out well!  :)


Brewer's spent grain should have already been coarsely ground and mostly separated from the husks, so a basic winnowing method could be used: Fully dry the spent grain, then use a blower from below, or sprinkling the grain through an air current, to blow the husks away from the rest of the grain. Yield levels will likely be quite low because chunks of the seed will remain attached to the hull, but if you're working with brewer's spent grain, you likely have quite a bit to work with.

Note that the most common uses for spent grain are composting and as livestock feed. While people have tried using it in baking, the low starch level means that it can only be used to replace a small portion of the flour.


ratio of non diastatic malt powder to one pound of flour.

The King Arthur Flour bagel recipe, the only one I could find that used non-diastatic malt power instead of malt syrup, has a ratio of 5.75 cups of flour to 1/4 cup malt powder to 2Tbs sugar and 1 Tbs salt.

By weight, that works out to a Flour:Malt:Sugar:Salt ratio of 25:1.4:0.8:0.6.  So for 50lbs of flour, you'd want:

2.8lbs malt powder
1.6lbs sugar
1.2lbs salt

... which is a bit more than the "super bagel mix" of 2.5 lbs, in fact more that twice as much.  You can cut the amounts in half, but I'm not sure that will work out.  Good luck!


What are the positive effects of adding celery to a sauce?

Celery is an aromatic, and 1/3 of a mirepoix. It's used for the base flavor of a lot of French and Cajun/Creole cuisine. It doesn't serve any important chemical role that I'm aware of, so you can omit or substitute it if you really don't like the flavor.


How to butter and flour the chimney of a bundt form

Use cake release. It's simple; just mix one part flour, one part solid fat (shortening), and one part liquid oil (roughly by volume). Assuming that your oils are shelf stable, your cake release will be too. (Or at least it will last for several months on the shelf. It may smell rancid slightly faster than the fats you used). Once it is mixed, you don't have to grease and flour cake pans. Just paint it on with a pastry brush. I recommend this one.


Perfect.  Sounds like your pizza stone is nicely seasoned.  Scrub it with your stiffest brush, rinse with water, no soap, done.  If you're paranoid about germs, cook it before cooking on it.  Throw it in the oven at a few hundred degrees, for 15 minutes or so.

Ideally, you're supposed to heat the stone (thus sterilizing it) before slapping the pizza upon it anyway (although that requires a pizza peel).


Tomatoes aren't high acid, so they need the addition of vinegar or lemon juice in order to safely can with a hot water bath. Honestly, I'm not sure why you would want to make tomato sauce from canned tomatoes because for me, the whole point of canning tomatoes is because the tomatoes will otherwise go bad. But anyhow...

I recommend finding a tomato sauce recipe from a canning cookbook or recipe website. Here is a recipe I found from the Ball website which is a reputable source, and here is an article about hot water bath canning tomato sauce. Notice that the recipe calls for a high acid ingredient, which is extremely important in canning tomato sauce with a hot water bath!

Secondly, it is NOT okay to seal jars by inverting them!!!! Get yourself a book about canning, Ball sells several good ones (Blue Book and Complete Guide to Home Preserving) and learn about the canning process. The steps are as follows:

(0) Follow the recipe EXACTLY, don't add any other ingredients that may change the pH of the final product!

(1) Get the hot water boiling in a jar large enough to have a few inches both above and below the jar that you'll use. You can use a metal trivet or canning rings to act as a base for the jars so that they have water going under them and aren't touching the base of the pot directly.

(2) Start with jars that are appropriate to canning and have fresh lids (or clean, working reusable lids like Weck jars or Tattler lids). If processing for under 15 minutes the jars need to be sterile (can be made sterile in a hot water bath). Inspect Tattler seals for any nicks, and throw away the bad ones.

(3) Normal canning lids and Tattler lids need to be prepared by soaking in hot water right up until use.

(4) Add the ingredients to your jars, remove air bubbles with a spatula, wipe the rims clean, and apply the lid as per the instructions of your lid. (Regular Ball lids are slightly different from Tattler lids, and I've never used Weck jars which I think are different again.)

(5) Insert into the hot water bath with canning tongs, cover, make sure that you start the countdown once the water has returned to a full boil.

(6) Remove once the time is up. Don't tilt the jars when removing them as the seal isn't airtight yet. Check the instructions for your lids, at this point Tattler lids have to be tightened fully.

(7) Leave the jars alone to cool. After a few hours or overnight, check the seals by trying to gently pry open the can. They should be "finger tight" and not pop off. The jars that aren't properly sealed can be put into the fridge and consumed within a short time. Otherwise they're good for up to a year or whatever the recipe suggests.


Should I bother trying to use a traditional wok on an electric stove?

There are two problems here:

Not enough heat reaching the wok/food due to limited contact surface.
Part of the heating element not being in contact with a cooling metal (pan/wok) and the heat reflected back at it (not escaping).

This can result in a large temperature difference between the parts of the element that are in contact with the wok and parts that are not as well as over heating the element.

You may still be able to use your wok on portable single burner gas stoves.  Otherwise I'd recommend heeding their advice and not using it on an electric stove.  It won't make good food with little contact point anyway.


Derobert's inference that your freezer is fully broken is almost certainly correct.  30 F would be about the temperature you would expect inside as the frozen food thaws.

So for some period of time, what you have had, in effect, is a refrigerator, not a freezer.

The question is, for each individual food in the freezer, would it still be safe if held at refrigerator temperatures for a full week.

You can get good estimates for many foods from these sites:

Still Tasty
Eat by Date

I would discard foods that are beyond their good life, or foods that would not be palatable when frozen, thawed, and then refrozen.

In the specific case of the green chilis (I am guessing whole), Still Tasty says about one week, so you are on the border.  You should use or re-freeze them quite quickly.  On the other hand, they have already sat for a week, and suffered the degradation from one freezing cycle.  As chilis are not normally terribly expensive, it may not be worth keeping them.


Why do Hong Kong chefs use a white towel instead of gloves to clutch a wok?

Because it is more efficient when running the kitchen while in full service.

It takes less time to remove their hands from the towels than it would take to remove gloves.

This also applies to chefs in other kind of cuisines; if you look at french cooks, they will do the same thing; grab a towel to pick something from the oven, or pick a pan from the stove.


In its recipe for Spring Rolls, What's Cooking America indicates:

  Spring rolls can be made a day ahead. Cover them with a damp paper
  towel, then wrap well in plastic wrap, and refrigerate. Refrigerating
  firms and toughens the wrappers and noodles [inside the roll, in this recipe] slightly (if they are a
  little dry, wipe them gently with a damp cloth).

In the future, consider that you might not want to make the rolls until you are ready to eat them.  Your filling ingredients will probably hold quite well on their own, and hydrating the wrappers to make the rolls is very fast and easy.


What are the Purposes of the Types of Meringue that are used for Pastry?

great question.

first of all, each meringue originated from a different culture and as such is more prevalent within recipes of that culture. more modern recipes might choose to use a different variant of meringue to get a more nuanced texture than in classic recipes.

I would like to refer you to a great article about this issue. here is an excerpt:

French:

  sometimes referred to as "ordinary"—is the most basic of the trio and the least stable until baked. Egg whites are beaten until they coagulate and form soft peaks, at which point sugar is slowly incorporated until the mixture has attained full volume; is soft, airy, and light; and stands at attention when the whip is lifted. French meringue is customarily spooned or piped into different forms, including dessert shells (such as vacherins) and cake layers (as in a dacquoise), and baked, later to be topped with fruit, mousse, or whipped cream. It is also often folded into batters (for lady fingers, sponge cakes, soufflés, and the like) and baked.

Swiss:

  is prepared by gently beating egg whites and sugar in a pan that sits above boiling water, without touching it. When the mixture reaches 120 to 130 degrees Fahrenheit and the sugar is completely dissolved, the mixture is pulled off the heat and beaten vigorously to increase and attain full volume and then at a lower speed until cool and very stiff. Swiss meringue is smoother, silkier, and somewhat denser than French meringue and is often used as a base for buttercream frostings.

Italian:

  is made by drizzling 240-degree Fahrenheit sugar syrup into whites that have already been whipped to hold firm peaks. Whipping continues until the meringue is fully voluminous, satiny, stiff, and cool. Italian meringue is often used to frost cakes (alone or as a base for buttercream frostings), to top filled pies, or to lighten ice creams, sorbets, and mousses.


Can I make Irish Brown Bread using a covered loaf pan?

The only "loaf pan with a lid" I'm familiar with is the "Pullman" pan. I have seen suggestions to use a board wrapped in foil or foil under a casserole dish set on top of a regular loaf pan if trying to emulate that form without the right pan. Foil alone would probably not hold. I don't own one and have never emulated it. I suppose if someone was using a bread pan to store grease in for use as shortening, a Pullman pan would help to keep things out of it. But as with @miken32 I can't find any reference to a pan by that name.


How can I identify bad peanuts before using them?

It's hard to say what is going to be ABSOLUTELY sure here, but I'd look for ones that have a different color from the rest in the container- if it's been overroasted, for example, you might want to avoid it.  Otherwise, I guess going by smell might be your best bet- if it has a more oily or rancid smell, you'd want to avoid it.  Look at your batch of nuts, and taste one or two of each dominant color shade/shape, and find like ones is my best suggestion.


How do restaurants make chicken fried rice? What ingredient am I missing?

For me it isn't fried rice without toasted sesame oil, and the fried rice I have had in restaurants always tastes to me as if it contains toasted sesame oil. Peas are pretty required too. BTW, La Choy is synthetic soy sauce, it was at the very bottom of the America's Test Kitchen taste testing of soy sauce (sorry, paywalled), the only soy sauce to get a "not recommended" rating. Use anything but that. From that taste test: "In summary, could this be any worse?"

I actually fry the rice in toasted sesame oil, but I have reason to believe that some toasted sesame oils will burn at that temperature. To experiment with that is on my list of things to do. So I can only say that this sesame oil has a high enough smoke point to fry rice.

For whatever reason, the label does not say that this sesame oil is toasted. It is, and it's a very high quality oil.

Amazon Link

EDIT: In other answers, Pepi mentions ginger, and Teresa mentions oyster sauce. I second both of those. I always use ginger and garlic and either oyster sauce or hoisin sauce. Also, Cindy mentions salt, the eggs do need salt. I actually use all of these in my rice (which looks like this when it is done, this is mine):

I'm assuming already cooked meat, peas sitting in a colander defrosting, water run over them enough to rinse off any clinging ice, and day-old rice.

I start by making slightly underdone scrambled eggs, seasoned just like I season eggs that I'm eating for breakfast. I set the eggs aside on a plate and wipe out the skillet (or flat bottomed wok) with a paper towel, and let it get pretty hot. I don't attempt to use extreme heat, the same level of heat I'd use to sear chicken works fine for me.

I add a good pour of the sesame oil, perhaps 1.5 tablespoons for two big servings (like the amount of fried rice in the picture above), let it heat for 30 seconds or so, then add ginger and garlic and stir. Then I add whatever veggies I'm using in the order of how long I want them to cook (all veggies except peas). When the veggies are just about fully cooked to to the level I want them in the rice, I add the rice, breaking it up and stirring in the veggies. I lightly press everything into the bottom of the pan, then I don"t touch it for a few minutes. I want the rice to get a bit of a brown crust along the bottom and to get mostly heated through before stirring again. This adds color and flavor, and helps keep the rice from sticking. This step seems to bridge the flavor gap between the the rice made with the super-high-heat that Asian restaurants can achieve, and the more moderate heat of a typical home stove.

In the meantime I mix my sauce. The proportions are up to taste, I usually go about half and half soy sauce and hoisin or oyster sauce. Less soy if is is dark, more if it is light or reduced sodium. I'll usually make just shy of a cup of sauce, knowing I won't use it all.

When the rice has formed a crust, I stir in the meat. Then the sauce, a bit at a time, tasting as I go. Finally I stir in the peas and eggs. I garnish with some chopped cilantro on the plate. Voila.

You mention Five Spice. That would be interesting, and possibly very good, but it is not a flavor that I associate with fried rice.


How much time does it take to boil salmon?

It just has to get to 145F for safety, and in boiling water that happens really fast. 5-10 minutes is totally believable. On top of that, fish is really unpleasant when overcooked, so you really want the minimum possible cooking. (For that reason, boiling is not usually a great way to cook fish - you tend to overcook it easily, especially the outside.) Note that this is the conservative, safe temperature, intended to be good even for people with weaker immune systems. Many people prefer it cooked to a lower temperature.

When you cook beef or pork for hours, it's presumably because it's a tough cut with lots of connective tissue to break down so that it's tender enough to eat. For cuts that are pleasant to eat as soon as they're cooked through, there's no reason to cook longer. You wouldn't cook a steak or pork chop for hours, and that's if anything even more true for fish.


What flavors work well within a splenda-sweetened strawberry-rhubarb cobbler?

The classic flavour pairing with rhubarb is vanilla: rhubarb and vanilla custard is a British staple. Fresh custard (Creme Anglaise, as the French call it) is easy to make and delicious.

Almond also pairs well with rhubarb. You could incorporate ground almonds into the cobbler mix, or perhaps fold some amaretto liqueur into lightly whipped cream to serve with the cobbler.

As Splenda has no real flavour, just a sweet taste, both of these will work with it easily.


How do get the "caramelized juices" from yams

It seems that the best answer to your needs will be making a treacle. It may be challenging to do it with yams, it's typically done with less starchy plants. But I don't think it's impossible, it should be worth a try.

Making a treacle basically involves taking a fruit juice, and slowly evaporating and caramelizing it. So, your first step will be to somehow juice the raw yams. Treacles are messy to make and lots of effort, so if you don't already own a juicer, it's probably better to not get one until you've done it a few times and are committed to continue. Especially seeing that it might turn out to not work well with yams. You could ask somebody to loan you a juicer (many people don't use theirs), or, if you can't find any, use the old method of pureeing the yams and then pressing them through a cheesecloth. Adding a bit of sugar should help both the juice flow and the later caramelization.

In the second step, you reduce the juice to a treacle. For that, pour the juice into a wide pan or pot. Place it on a very low flame, so low that it doesn't even simmer (but it should be hot, not just warm). Leave it there for as long as it needs, controlling it occasionally and giving it a stir. It's ready when it has the consistency of uncrystalized honey. It'll take many hours to reach that stage, but be aware that, with the hob set to the same setting, the liquid will get hotter towards the end after most of it has evaporated. So, in the final stage, you have to monitor it constantly (and also reduce the temperature a bit), or you will end up with sticky charcoal, and might even ruin a sensitive pan coating such as PTFE. (It's probably best to do this in a thick bottomed stainless steel pot/pan).

A properly reduced treacle is shelf stable, like jam. It can be used in most places where people use jams, honey, or strong syrups like maple syrup or sugar beet syrup.


Boxed pancake mix - Allpurpose or Cake Flour?

Most pancake recipes call for all purpopse flour.  I assume boxed mixes do the same, or a mix of all purpose and cake flour for a lighter texture.

The difference between them is 'hard' and 'soft' flours.  Hard flours (AP, Bread, semolina, etc.) have more gluten/protein in them, which contributes a chewier texture. Soft flours such as cake are a finer grind and give cakes a crumblier (word?) and lighter texture.  If you used AP for an angel food cake, it would be dense and chewy, rather than light and airy.

AP is generally a mix of hard and soft flours, and can be used for many cakes, breads, and of course pancakes.  Since pancakes tend to have a chewier texture than many baked goods, they probably use an AP-type flour.

Since pancakes are reletively cheap to make, experiment with it. Try bread, AP, cake, and varioius combinations.  There is a recipe in Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything where you separate the eggs, whip the whites into a foam, and fold it into the batter before cooking.  I imagine this would go well with cake flour.

Wheat Flour (wikipedia)


Chicken in Tin Foil in the Oven: Any tips or advices on spices or wrapping?

If you're worried about the aluminum foil, you can always just use a covered casserole dish ... it might not hold all of the steam in, though.  (there are methods, like mixing a pough of flour and water, then using that to seal the lid on the pot).

Also, if you're worried, I'd just consider not using acids, like lemon; aluminum pots and pans react to acids, and I'd only assume aluminum foil would to.

You could also switch to parchment paper, which is the original for cooking 'en papillote' (in paper).

But 'better' is subjective -- easier to clean up (aluminum foil wins, I think), cheap (maybe the casserole dish, as it's reusable), more impressive (probably the parchment paper).

As for spicing ... search for 'chicken en papillote' on any internet serch engine and you'll find lots of recipes.


should I freeze a two-day refrigarated meat sauce?

Such a sauce should last 3-4 days at least in the refrigerator (based on comparing to Still Tasty's turkey soup or stew category, which is a conservative match; plain spaghetti sauce indicates 7-10 days but this probably not based on poultry).

This clock is based on refrigerated time; freezing essentially stops the clock while the food is fully frozen.

So yes, it should be safe to freeze your sauce.


What can I cure at 15c and 50% humidity?

This is pretty close to the temperature and humidity of the closet where I store wine and hang salumi to cure.  I've had the most success with pancetta, lomo, and brasola. I've had some successes and some failures with dried sausages and salami, usually related to undesirable mold that I didn't catch in time.  I probably wouldn't hang an entire pork leg, in an effort to make something like a prosciutto.  Generally, because of the cost and labor involved, I would want the conditions to be more precise and less variable.  In my wine closet, the temp and humidity does change.  However, for the smaller items I am playing with, and given the time necessary, the conditions are just fine.  It sounds like a reasonable place to experiment.  One final note, be sure your space is insect and rodent-free.  That could be a potential issue.


How can I intensify the orange flavour in orange cake?

Citrus zest is where most citrus flavour in a sauce or baked good actually comes from because it remains in solid form, like herbs and spices. The juice adds some flavour but it turns into solution and gets spread out over a very large surface area/volume.

I don't know why you decided not to use the zest - are you using commercial orange juice? If so, that may be part of the problem too - processed juices are not going to be as flavourful as homemade, in part because of the mechanical separation of pulp (even if it is subsequently re-incorporated to make a juice "with pulp").

Orange juice is effectively your water in this recipe so doubling it means you need to double everything else. In other words you'll have exactly the same ratios and therefore exactly the same taste.

If it came out too dry then that means you either (a) baked too long, (b) overworked the batter, (c) didn't use enough oil or (d) didn't use enough sugar. Nothing to do with the OJ content.

If you really want to add more orange flavour beyond what the original recipe would give you, use orange extract, it's a highly concentrated orange flavour and is usually derived from (surprise!) the zest, or made to taste like one. But I would suggest to try following the recipe correctly before doing this.


Ingestion of small piece of uncooked meat

The reality is you will likely be just fine. Food poisoning, or getting E coli. are possible when eating raw meat that hasn't been handled properly. Cooking the meat to the USDA guidelines is merely done to reduce that likelihood to near zero.

If you start to feel ill you may need to see a doctor, but we can not give medical advice here.


Three potential methods or changes you can try:

soak the quail in brine for 2-3 hours before searing. You can do this in a large zip-lock sack or in a covered bowl. Make sure to store the quail/brine combo in your refrigerator during the soaking.
Let quail reach room temperature before cooking.
Pan-searing the quail might dry out the smaller pieces, i.e. the bony wings or legs. Try your 20-minutes cooking in a very hot oven, making sure not to burn or sear the quail too much. Similar to cooking a turkey, cover the thinner pieces with foil so they dry out more slowly.

Ultimate method: use a "Sous Vide" method - you basically seal the quail and your flavorful broth in a vacuum seal bag, making sure to get as much air out as possible before sealing. Then you slow-cook the bag+contents in a Sous Vide hot-water bath. Instead of buying an expensive/French Sous Vide cooker, just follow these steps for very similar results: http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/04/cook-your-meat-in-a-beer-cooler-the-worlds-best-sous-vide-hack.html

Note: to get a good finish, after cooking the quail to tender in a Sous Vide bath, you can sear the quail a little bit with a cook's blow-torch (for good presentation) or just pan sear it quickly in a hot pan.


Imitating the flavor of the lamb itself will probably be much more difficult (if not impossible) than manipulating the other ingredients in the dish. That way, the brain is tricked into thinking it is eating lamb, when it is not.  For example, let's say you want to make a meatless lamb biryani.  If you can get the texture of a meatless lamb substitute close enough (for example, by using seitan or some other substitute), then use the proper technique, and ingredients for making a biryani, it will "feel like" you are eating a lamb biryani.
I realize this doesn't directly answer your question, but I think that creating imitation lamb (or any meat) flavor is a difficult problem that challenges food scientists and companies trying to create meatless "meat."  It would be pretty impressive (and possibly lucrative) if you could easily do that at home, but it would surprise me if it is easy or straight-forward. Brached chain fatty acids could be important, but my hunch is there is a lot more going into how we experience those (or any) flavors.


What previously manual techniques should I use a stand mixer for?

I use mine for anything that needs to be kept fairly cool, but doesn't necessarily need to be "cut" the way the blade of a food processor does. Anything that requires mixing meat, in particular. Burgers, meatloaf, etc. retain a better texture when the meat isn't warmed by your hands. Aside from those, we mix ground meat for jerky and meatballs in the mixer.

Hope this helps. Enjoy your mixer!


What are some ways to prepare beet greens?

It's no accident that, as Ray says, people treat beet greens similar to chard (swiss chard - also known as silverbeet in some regions!). According to On Food and Cooking, they're the same species, Beta vulgaris. Chards are varieties that have been selected for thick, large leaves, subspecies cicla. The same passage also mentions that beets are a distant relative of spinach! Pretty distant, though - same family, different subfamily. Beet root (commonly simply called beets) was on the other hand selected for the root - subspecies vulgaris. (Wikipedia mentions a couple other subspecies, but you're unlikely to have seen them - they're wild, not cultivated.)

As for uses, there's really no end to it - just like there's no end of chard recipes. Unfortunately, since the greens are usually pretty small compared to the beets, it's hard to get a lot of mileage out of them. Since they're generally thinner than chard, they cook down even more than chard does. Sometimes I just quickly saute them and have a snack while I cook the rest of the meal. If you have another dish with greens, you can toss them in there. You can also just cook them separately and toss them back in with your beets, to add a bit of color and texture to that dish.

Finally, the presence of the greens is by no means universal in the US - I've seen plenty of stores selling just the root. I prefer them with the greens, though. Both parts are great, and I enjoy the bit of extra variety in my meals.


Crispy sweet potato (yam) fries in a deep fryer?

I would also cut down on the "Full Basket" to lessen the Oil Temp Recovery. Try just a few handfuls at a time to keep the temp above 325'F. Frying time per batch should only be between 1 - 2 minutes.


Is ok to have boxes of raw chicken stacked on top of each other

This should be fine if there is no other food below the chicken wings. What you don't want is for the chicken to be in a position to contaminate other foods.
General food service guide lines include:

From "Preventing Cross-Contamination During Storage Fact Sheet" (appears to originally be from the National Restaurant Educational Foundation, hosted here by New York's National Guard food service):

  Store raw meat, poultry and fish separately from prepared and ready-to-eat food. If these items cannot be stored separately, store them below prepared or ready-to-eat food. Raw meat, poultry and fish should be stored in the following [order (top to bottom)]: whole fish, whole cuts of beef and pork, ground meats and fish, and whole and ground poultry.


Why did my steak marinade not make a difference?

There seem to be two general expectations for the marinade here: (1) it would tenderize the steak, and (2) it would result in more flavor.  The first of these is basically a culinary myth, and the second was probably undermined by what you did to the second (unmarinated) steak.

It's important to be clear about what marinades do and don't do.  Marinades don't penetrate deeply into the meat.  In fact, aside from salt, most of the other flavorings or ingredients won't get more than a millimeter or two below the surface of the meat.

If you want to see this clearly, have a look at this page, where you can see colored dye was added to the marinade for various meats and other foods.  In the case of solid meats like beef, larger molecules like flavorings (and colored dye) won't get beyond a millimeter or two.  Salt is a smaller molecule and has other properties that allow it to penetrate deeper, though that process is quite slow too.  As the link says, if you really want to see the effect (or non-effect) of a marinade on the interior, try comparing marinated and non-marinated thick pieces of meat, but cut off the outer 1/4" or so before eating, being careful not to get any of the exterior spices or juices on the interior.  Assuming both meats were salted, the interiors will generally be virtually identical -- no differences in texture or flavor.

Marinating is basically a surface phenomenon, and it should primarily be done for flavoring purposes, rather than tenderizing.

So why do so many people think that marinades tenderize meats?  Well, marinades can make the surface of meat mushier and sometimes juicier.  Since the well-done outermost layer in a seared steak is often the firmest part of the cooked steak, anything that makes that layer easier to chew can make it seem like the whole steak is more tender overall.  Also, the outside layer usually contains the most interesting flavor components, both from seasoning and from browning reactions -- so anything that makes that part juicier or tender and ready to burst open when you bite into it will be much more noticeable from a flavor perspective than altering the interior.

But the tenderness aspect mostly goes for steaks that are already quite tender.  In that case, searing will potentially make the outer layer tougher, but the interior is already tender.  If we can use a marinade to keep the outer layer tender, then the exterior will continue to match the overall steak.

If your case, shoulder steaks are most likely somewhat tough to begin with, so that small alteration in the outer layer may not have made a huge difference in the final product.

Regarding the flavoring, if I read your instructions correctly, you used the same spice blends in the marinade and then on both steaks.  You also salted both steaks in advance.

You don't mention any salt in the marinade (unless it was included in the "various seasonings").  In any case, heavy salting 45 minutes before cooking will likely cause moisture release.  If you hadn't really salted either steak before that, they will both release their moisture in the outer layers, but the brine which forms will start to break down the outer layers of the steak a bit (rapid tenderization), and the brine will be largely absorbed back into the steak along with other flavor components present.

Effectively, your pre-salting step probably influenced the outer layers (again, only a millimeter or so) in 45 minutes almost as much as your marinade did in 12 hours.  Thus the tenderization and flavor differences between the two steaks were probably lessened significantly.

In sum, marinades can break down the outer layer of the meat and add flavor to it, so when you bite into it, the outer skin gives you a burst of flavor.  They can also cause the outer layers to retain a little more moisture (which is probably why you saw less juice from the marinated steak).  However, 45 minutes of a dry rub, particularly with salt, will have similar effects.  My guess is that whatever spice blend you used was strong enough to overpower the more subtle flavor notes from the milk, lemon, and oil, which only would have been on the surface anyway.  Since you treated the surfaces of the steaks the same way for the final 45 minutes, including salting which could cause more rapid changes than your other marinade ingredients, the differences in the final product were not large.

(EDIT: By the way, if you really want to tenderize meat, enzyme action will be much more effective than a small amount of acidity in a marinade.  There are natural meat tenderizers available with these enzymes, often derived from various fruits or vegetables.  However, be aware that they too will mostly affect the exterior surface.  They'll just do it much better than a marinade, so the effects will be more noticeable and could even make the meat excessively mushy.)


As long as you don't use metal tools with the teflon, I don't see why you shouldn't just go with that. Iron or steel would have to be very well seasoned (think cooking scrambled eggs). Besides, for $15 you aren't out a lot of money if it doesn't work out.

Edited to add: Teflon is when Alton Brown went with in the crepes episode of Good Eats.


Brisket: separating the flat from the point prior to smoking

This is indeed possible and not really hard to do. Just look up some tutorial videos on youtube to see where to cut.

Be careful with the reduced cooking time, though. Brisket needs it's time to denaturate/melt the fat and collagens. Maybe pre-cook it sous-vide for a few hours if you have limited time on the smoker.


There are several things that come together to produce the overall flavor profile of the dish, not all of them having anything to do with the wine.  Traditional factors such as good spicing, blooming the spices, browning ingredients and so forth continue to have a huge affect.

Deglazing with some wine adds the following:

Acidity.  Wine is an acid food product, and this brightness can enhance the overall flavor of the dish.
Sweetness.  Wine can also be sweet, which acts as a flavor enhancer.
Fruitiness.  The fruity qualities of the wine may compliment the other flavors of the dish.
Alcohol.  The alcohol in the wine will not completely evaporate.  Some will remain, helping to dissolve and make volatile some flavor components which are ot soluble in either water or fats (this is especially true in tomato based dishes).  This can give foods cooked with alcohol an extra depth of flavor.

The first and last of these affects probably have the most profound affect on your dish.

Adding the wine in dribs and drabs probably doesn't help, but in the end you need to use enough wine to have a good effect on your dish.  Even though it will be reduced, it is still an ingredient, and you need to have enough to matter.

I do suggest adding it all at once, and letting it boil away; this should work quite well.

The quality of wine you use also matters.  You want a wine that tastes decent, even as a beverage.  My personal preference for cooking is a Chardonnay, but I don't think that preference is universal.


How can you prepare turnips to make them less bitter?

Yeah, maybe you just had some bitter turnips.  It sounds like you did all the right things to hide the bitterness.

If you want to try a different cooking method, I tend to like turnip boiled and mashed.  If the turnip is old (and likely bitter) you can add an apple.  I've also read that you can stir in baking soda after the turnips have boiled to remove the bitterness. You would then need to rinse thoroughly. I've never tried this however.


How to cook young onions so that they melt?

Oignons nouveaux, aka green onions, are typically cooked low and slow in a dutch oven with butter or [olive] oil. When you're cooking them (and onions in general), salt them early - salting the onions will help get rid of that "oniony" taste and will let you taste their natural sweetness.


What is the best way to preserve oyster stew?

If the stew is already prepared, you should be able to freeze it with very little problem.  I freeze cream sauces all of the time.  Individual portions are ideal because they freeze more quickly with less/smaller water crystals.

If the stew is not cold already, chill it in the refrigerator before before moving it to the freezer.  Breaking, or separation of fats, usually occurs when reheating.  Defrost the frozen stew gently, say overnight in the refrigerator or in a cool water bath, and then gently warm in a pan -- not a microwave.  Add a little fresh cream to smooth it out if you need to.

As you mention, any oysters in the stew will be frozen and reheated, so they will be end up more "well done" than those in a fresh batch.

As for freezing the oysters in their liquor, you can do so.  If you have a vacuum sealer that allows liquids, that is your best route.  Note that freezing will slightly change the texture and they will release more moisture when thawed.


How should I adjust the time and/or temperature when baking a pound cake in loaf pans

I wouldn’t change much if anything.

The main factor for baking is volume and the area of the cross-section, or, in other words, how long does it take for the oven heat to reach the center parts of the batter and bake them. Under that premise, you could say a bundt pan is like a curved loaf pan, thanks to the chimney in the middle. But: The material of the pans will also be a factor in baking time, even if you are using the same shape, so a tiny bit of experimentation is called for here

So the recommendation is to treat your tried-and-tested recipe like a new one: Set your timer for about five to ten minutes less than you normally would, check the cake for doneness (thermometer or skewer that comes out clean) and if needed, continue baking until the cake is done. Tip: note the baking time for all pans that you used, this will be helpful next time.

Assuming that you are baking the pound cake at a relatively low temperature (160-175 C or 325-350 F), a few minutes deviation won’t cause it to burn.


Pure alcohol is a solvent: that is: it will dissolve other chemicals more easily than water.  If you put vodka in oak barrels for long enough, it'll turn into bourbon as it will dissolve and concentrate the taste of the oak.

The same thing is happening while you're making stock:

The oils in whatever the recipe of your stock calls for will dissolve more easily in alcohol than water.
It speeds up the creation of the stock
You could use any alcohol, but if you would use Bourbon the stock would get a smoky oak taste, so by using vodka (which is 40 Vol% of alcohol in water) no extra taste gets added except what's in your stock recipe.
As alcohol has a much lower boiling point than water, the vodka will extract the oils and mostly evaporate so depending on the amount used it might be safe for children too if you follow the Halal rules but you should know a water-ethanol mixture forms an azeotrope.


French culinary terminology for dicing vegetables

The name depends on the sice of the dices. There are:

Brunoise as the smallest one with up to 1.5 mm
Jardiniere ~5 mm
Macédoine 5 to 7 mm
Parmentier 0.8 to 1 cm
Carré ~2cm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_culinary_knife_cuts


Can I whisk macaron batter like meringue?

The process I follow for making macarons is:

Whisk egg whites until foamy
Add caster sugar gradually and whisk until very stiff, adding any colouring near the end.
Stir in almond meal and icing/confectioners sugar (there is no need to fold gently)
Use a dough scraper to mix the batter in a back and forth motion until the batter falls like a ribbon off the scraper.

I tend to hand-whisk the almond meal and confectioner's sugar together before adding to the egg whites to ensure even mixing.. Since I have started using the above method, found in Jill Collonna's book Mad About Macarons, I have always had very nicely shaped macarons, with excellent feet. Prior to this, I had been carefully folding in the almond meal/sugar with generally poor results.

You are correct in your findings that adding the almond meal during whisking the egg whites prevents more air being incorporated. The almond meal is oily and the oil 'kills' the meringue. This is why your beaters and whisking bowl should always be spotless, and why you can't have any egg yolk in your whites.

Making macarons is part science, part art, and it takes a lot of practice to get the results just right. I have cracked the macaronnage (mixing) stage, but I'm damned if I can bake them correctly without browning the top! Keep practising and you will get there.


Will I damage a plastic bowl with a marble pestle?

Yes you will damage plastic. At the very least, you will scratch them. At worst, you will get plastic dust in your food. Don't do it.

If you don't believe me, take empty plastic bowl (one you don't mind damaging) and push pestle against it's wall. You will see for yourself.


cooking time for chicken-pesto in the oven

There is no definitive time or temperature that would 100% guarantee your chicken was done without it having a 99% chance of being over cooked and dry.

It's quite hard to use a meat thermometer with stuffed chicken breasts but if your meat/filling has got up to 74°C in the center and there is no pink in the meat you'll be fine.


Can I substitute almond meal for breadcrumbs in meatballs?

Go right ahead and use the almond meal.

In its list of uses for almond meal, this source says:

  Use almond meal in place of breadcrumbs in meatballs.

In fact one of the recipes on the site is for Meatballs Parmesan. It calls for ground meat without specifying a type, so I assume your turkey would be fine.

In addition, the description of this
almond meal product states the following:

  Use almond meal in place of bread crumbs in meatballs, or as a coating for chicken and fish.


For safety reasons, it's strongly discouraged to re-freeze thawed products without cooking them first, as you don't know how long they have been waiting to be sold. Repeated freezing won't do anything nice to the texture, either.

But as you want to get a decent amount, can't you discuss with the grocer to buy them still frozen? If you then transport them in an icebox with cold elements, you should be able to get them in your home freezer safely.


Most tomatoes from the produce aisle will be relatively flavourless— this is because they are frequently picked when they are unripe so that they can ripen en route to the store and extend their shelf life as a result. Try using canned tomatoes instead, which are picked at the height of their ripeness and preserved right away.


Effect of metal colander on jerky meat post-marinade

Stainless steel, ceramics, and glass are considered "non-reactive" in the kitchen, while vessels made from aluminum, copper, iron, and steel are considered "reactive".  The latter category are reactive with acidic and alkaline foods (lemon and tomato, for example).  The result is that these foods can take on a metallic taste.

If you have not noticed any off-taste, you are probably using stainless.


I guess you are talking about a pre-seasoned convenience product in an oven bag like this Butterball Ready to Roast boneless skinless turkey breast?

Well, the website writes:

  Ingredients
  Boneless Turkey Breast. Contains up to 25% of a solution of Water, contains 2% or less of Salt, Sugar, and Sodium Phosphate to enhance tenderness and juiciness.

This is like a super-brined piece of meat that consists of 3/4 meat and 1/4 watery brine. You don't want to thaw that because during thawing you'd likely lose a lot if the additional liquid. In the oven, the product thaws and the additional water keeps the meat moist, the sealed bag contributes to this.

It's imho not a classic roast (different ingredients, different preparation method), for an untreated turkey breast the "defrost first" rule is still valid.


Raw pork and raw chicken touching each other

Yes, that's fine. You're going to cook everything to a much higher temp than the minimum safe temperature for the meat that requires the highest temperature. That's the key, and your plans are far beyond what is minimally required for safety.


How do I  maintain a portable induction cooker?

The upper surface is glass, so I clean it like a normal Ceran stove: A special ceran cleaner when a cloth isn't enough, a sharp blade for specks, a gentle abrasive (like Cif) for stubborn spots which won't get away. The sides of mine are alu, but I don't bother getting out a different cleaning agent for that, just continue wiping with whatever I used on the glass.

I have never opened mine to clean the fan, and suspect that it will void the warranty. But if needed, I would handle it like a PC fan: open the case, use compressed air to blow it clean. Trying to wipe the fan could decenter it. It won't make the blades perfectly smooth, as the humid kitchen air tends to turn dust to clingy grime, but it should remove the bulk if the fan is too full to work efficiently.


A blade steak is cut from the Chuck. It will have a great deal of connective tissue, so it is an appropriate cut of meat for slow-ish smoking. I would recommend about 250-275F (121-135C) as a cooking temperature. It should take about 2 hours, give or take, depending on the thickness of your steaks. Hit them up with some dry rub or salt and pepper prior to cooking. Put the steaks on the smoker, and start checking on them at about the 1.5 hour mark. You don't want to make pulled beef, so when you put a probe or skewer through the steak, it should go through with a little resistance (unlike when you are making pulled pork, for example, where you want to feel absolutely no resistance when you slide the probe through the meat). When you think the steaks are about done, paint them with your favorite sauce, if you like, and leave them on the smoker for another 15 minutes or so.

It's a little more nuanced than smoking a whole shoulder, but not enough to be intimidating. You want the finished product to be nearly fork tender, but not falling apart. However, err on the side of cooking too long, versus not enough, and you'll be happy.


From the recipes I've seen, it looks like the pandan extract tends to be made from fresh leaf and water - essentially it's a juice.  This might make it easier to substitute rather than if it had required other ingredients or preparation, use of alcohol or other solvents.

So, it looks like the pandan paste is the nearest substitute - the recipes look like it can be made from pandan leaf and water, it is just blended and kept - simple straining should make the extract.  Of course, commercial processed paste may have preservatives and stabilizers and such, but it might be workable anyway... or perhaps you can find a good product with few of the extra additives.

Another alternative is to pick up pandan leaves - frozen ones are available, even online, though it might take some looking, extra charges in shipping, or something like that.  Fresh might be available somewhere, but it's likely harder to depend on and will perhaps take more work.  Frozen will work for most applications - especially since freezing usually helps with extracting juice (extract, recall), will store better, and will perhaps be easier to find.

If you're using the dried leaves, you can soak them, boil, essentially make tea.  The flavor is weaker, and you will need more to get the same flavor, but since the dried leaves are just pandan - you should be able to reconstitute the leaves and extract the flavor the same way.  Dried pandan is available as a tea, it just takes a bit of looking.

As for the pandan extract, the advice I found was to buy the large cans of good, pure extract, and portion it off (like ice cubes) and freeze.  It will store well - at least as well as frozen leaves - and it will have just the pure flavor, so more flavor for the same amount of freezer space.


Why does my pavlova always look like this?

A pavlova is similar to a meringue. (The additional starch and vinager change the texture a bit, but not the preparation).

The key to baking a pavlova is not baking it. You want it to dry, rather than bake.

What does this mean here?

If it turns brown, the heat is too high. (A very slight tinge is ok...) Especially with a smallish oven, the heat elements or oven walls might be too close or hotter than your thermostat setting. Also, oven thermometers are notoriously incorrect - and 30° can be a major difference here. You could invest in a good oven thermometer, but I'd probably just use a lower setting next time and see what happens.
If its sticky, there is too much humidity left. This might be due to you using a small oven. You want to keep the oven door slightly ajar to let the water "escape" after baking. Normally you shouldn't open the door while baking due to the risk of the pavlova collapsing, but I'd probably try leaving it slightly ajar (like for meringue) once, just out of curiosity...

Would longer beating help? I can't say as I don't know how long you are beating now. But this link describes the desired texture quite nicely.

As far as the rings are concerned: No idea, sorry. (Perhaps beating time...)


How to keep my stainless steel skillet clean

Be careful with cold water in a hot pan - since the pan is metal, you shouldn't have to worry about cracking, but you will get a nice burst of steam in your face!

Your best bet is to deglaze the pan immediately while it's still hot, or heat it back up and deglaze it.  There are some tips in this thread.  As a bonus you're going to get a delicious pan sauce as part of the deal.

You're never going to get it store-bought perfect, but I've had a lot of luck cleaning stains that seemed permanent by using Bar Keepers Friend, which in my opinion is one of the best commercial cleaners available.


Making sourdough bread with just flour and water (and no starter)

As a point of reference let's look to this "Sourdough Starter Recipe"

Combine ¾ cup flour and ½ cup warm water in a glass or plastic container. Make sure the container can hold about 2 quarts, to avoid overflow.
Stir vigorously to incorporate air; cover with a breathable lid.
Leave in a warm place, 70-85°F (21-29°C) for 12-24 hours.
Feeding every 12 hours will increase the rate at which your sourdough starter is multiplying its organisms; feeding every 24 hours will take a bit longer, but may be more sustainable depending on your time commitment.
At the 12 or 24 hour mark you may begin to see some bubbles, indicating that organisms are present. Repeat the feeding with ½ cup warm water and ¾ cup flour.
Stir vigorously, cover, and wait another 12-24 hours. Repeat feedings every 12-24 hours by removing half of the starter before every feeding and discarding it. Feed with ½ cup warm water and ¾ cup flour.
After about 5-7 days the sourdough starter should have enough yeasts and bacteria to be used for baking.

The ratios are a little off and you are just dumping everything in at the start. Despite your stated desire to "not do so" what you would be doing is making a sourdough starter...but what would probably not be 'a very good one'.

Edible is a matter of taste, yours would probably qualify in some 'technical' sense (unlikely that someone would become ill from eating it) and it 'would be sourdough'. The process of gradually adding and removing flour and water through the week stretches out the food supply. Your "dump it all in at once" approach would likely cause the yeast to multiply too fast to the point of creating a toxic environment for the yeast, however I doubt it would reach that level in 5-7 days. Since you aren't trying to create a sustainable culture that would not be your concern.

Would it "be" sourdough? yeah...
Would it be "good" sourdough? not likely...
Would I do it? not a chance.


First of all, with omelettes--any sauteed eggs really--I much prefer butter. And with omelettes, less than a teaspoon is sufficient; swirl it around the pan until fully melted, then pour off the excess. In this case, you would be using the butter for flavour, not any specific physical properties. For scrambled, user rather more. Fried eggs are generally the only time I will use olive oil, and even then I will use a mix of olive oil (for the heat) and butter (for that flavour which goes so well with eggs).

In general I prefer to avoid sprays (unless you are talking about a pump-action spray bottle which you fill yourself) as there are propellants and such used in sprays to make them work. Personally I prefer to avoid multisyllabic synthetic chemicals in my food whenever possible.

But if you must... sprays are most useful when you need a very thin but even coating of oil. Omelettes are a good example, though honestly I cannot think of another use in cookery where I would find a spray advantageous.

In baking, however, sprays can be quite useful. Especially when baking tarts, pies, or cakes which call for the pan to be buttered and then floured. A quick spray makes things much simpler.


Is there any difference between cheap and expensive vodka?

Here's a report on an informally conducted taste test suggesting that there are indeed detectable differences between various vodkas: (the report does not say so, but I suspect that much like wine, whether one vodka comes out as better as another one has little to do with its price, except at the very bottom end of the price range)

And, yes, there are differences—a truth known by anyone in the liquor industry with a little sense. But one that is frequently forgotten— partly because our government insists on characterizing vodka as a "colorless, flavorless, odorless" beverage; [...] That there are subtle, and sometimes dramatic, differences in flavor and odor between one vodka and another was driven home recently by a daylong seminar hosted by Absolut. [...] Central to the event was a blind tasting of 12 different vodkas. [...]
The main lesson of the tasting—or re-learned lesson, since many of us in the room knew it already—is that the biggest difference between the flavors of various vodkas derives from the source material, and that difference is easily detected, if you pay attention. Vodka can be distilled from anything, but the most common raw materials are grain and potatoes, with a few using molasses and grapes and other things. Grape-sourced vodka typically has a fruitier character; grain-sourced has the expected bready, yeasty and, yes, grainy notes, with the rye vodkas having more bit and spark than the barley or wheat ones; and potato-sourced vodka has a rounder, sometimes buttery flavor.
From: http://offthepresses.blogspot.be/2010/03/vodkas-and-their-differences.html

Another taste test conducted by the New York Times suggests the same thing:

Delving into the world of vodka reveals a spirit unlike almost any other, with standards that make judging it substantially different from evaluating wine, beer, whiskey or even root beer. A malt whiskey should be distinctive, singular. The same goes for a Burgundy or a Belgian ale. But vodka? Vodka is measured by its purity, by an almost Platonic neutrality that makes tasting it more akin to tasting bottled waters, or snowflakes. [...]
A lack of distinctiveness is a separate matter from a lack of distinction. The vodkas we tasted had character and their own flavors and aromas, even though the differences among them were often subtle and difficult to articulate. [...]
That being said, at the end of our tasting it was Smirnoff at the top of our list, ahead of many other names that are no doubt of higher status in stylish bars and lounges. [...] The prices of these vodkas ranged from a low of $13 for the Smirnoff to a high of $34 for Potocki, a Polish vodka that did not make our cut. The Belvedere also cost $34, but that was for a liter rather than the usual 750 milliliter bottle. Imported vodkas tend to cost more, partly because of taxes levied by various governments, currency exchange rates and, not least, marketing concerns: as has been proved in many industries, wine not least of all, raising the price of a product increases its status among consumers.
From: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/26/dining/26wine.html

As a counterpoint, here's another report suggesting most people can not tell the difference:

To summarize our findings,

Given a particular brand of vodka, people prefer its taste after it has been filtered, but this is most likely because filtration reduces the alcohol content.
Most people can’t tell the difference between an expensive vodka with high alcohol content and a cheaper vodka with lower alcohol content.

Our second experiment demonstrated approximately equal preferences for Pavlova and Ketel One. Although Pavlova contains 3-5% less alcohol by volume than Ketel One, it is also 70% cheaper, so it would seem a clear winner.
From: http://www.monzy.com/vodka-research/


How do I encourage funnel cake cohesion?

The whole wheat may be your issue. Try adding at least half AP flour or bread flour, which are both better at forming glutinous strands that will keep everything sticking together. If you want to stick to 100% whole wheat flour you could try adding an extra egg to help bing everything together.


Edit This answer assumes that you want a shelf-stable oil. If you are going to use up the oil immediately (or within 3 days and refrigerate), methods like the pressure charging from moscafj's answer don't pose a safety problem.

Simply, you can't. I am not sure how industrial oils are made, maybe they are irradiated or simply made under sanitized conditions and at the end microbiologically checked to ensure that a given batch isn't contaminated, but it isn't something you can do at home.

There are no methods accessible to home cooks to prevent botulinum in low-acid foods. Heat won't work, as botulinum bacteria don't just live like any other bacteria, they also form spores which will survive temperatures which would have incinerated other species with a single form. You can never reach these temperatures in a watery medium, e.g. in canning purees, in industry it is done in canners with much higher pressure than home pressure canners. In oil, you could theoretically reach the temperatures as you are not limited by the water's boiilng point, but as you pointed out, the flavor will change a lot. In the worst case, you will have to bring the oil to above smoking point to ensure safety.

Filters won't work, as any filters small enough to hold back bacteria are too tight to permit something as viscous as oil to flow through, and botulism toxin isn't "particulate matter", it is dissolved in the food.


Can you add water to shortening to use in place of butter?

Shortening is all fat, while butter is fat with "other stuff":

  Commercial butter is 80–82 percent milk fat, 16–17 percent water, and 1–2 percent milk solids other than fat. Source

Therefore, shortening plus water can provide a somewhat more accurate substitute than plain shortening. Even a major shortening brand recommends adding water when substituting for butter.

  If you use shortening, but want an effect closer to butter, add 1 and 1/2 teaspoons water for every 1/4 cup of shortening. Source

To get a mixture that tastes a bit more like butter, you could use milk instead of water.
In most baking applications, the additional liquid can simply be added when other wet ingredients are mixed in.

Alternatively, combining them in advance can be done with sufficient beating, although this will incorporate air and potentially affect texture. See below a picture of shortening whipped with water for a pie crust recipe:


What determines total heat when using chilis? Quantity × intensity?

Granted, my peppers were farmed in California, not India, but they should be well within an order of magnitude of its variety's rating.

Actually, they shouldn't necessarily. All chiles, are very sensitive to the environment they are grown in. Even trivial changes in temperature, humidity, and soil pH can affect the heat of the chile. The Naga Jolokia in particular can be at least as low as 500,000 Scoville units. The hottest one has been recorded at over 1 million. Many American growers intentionally grow them much milder than those found in India; this makes them much easier to sell.

The Scoville scale is a measure of capsaicin concentration. In other words, quantity of capsaicin per fixed volume. Originally, it was measured by a panel of five tasters who tasted a dilute solution of capsaicin oil which had been extracted from a fixed quantity of dried chile. The degree of dilution at which the capsaicin is undetectable is the Scoville rating.

Modern methods use high performance liquid chromatography to precisely the pungency units of a chile, this is equivalently the parts per million of capsaicin. Multiplying the pungency rating by 15 gives you the equivalent Scoville rating.

What does all this mean? Well, since it's a measure of concentration it's important to realize that by eating one chile or 20 chiles the concentration doesn't change. However, with more chiles you are exposing your mouth to a greater quantity of capsaicin. If this is what you mean by "intensity" then sure, it's more intense with an increase in volume. Personally I think of intensity as concentration instead of volume.

Those paragraphs should answer your question overall, but I'll go through your list just the same:

The intensity is the Scoville rating. Again, intensity to me equates to concentration.
The capsaicin is most concentrated in the seeds, so chewing them will release a greater quantity of it.
Not that I am aware of.
Not sure what you mean by cooked down, but yes both volume and concentration affect the quantity of capsaicin.
A larger fruit of the same Scoville rating (concentration) will contain a larger amount of capsaicin.
Yes, the capsaicin concentration is seven times greater.
Yes that is a reasonable use.


How can I fix my dry crumbly cookie dough?

My own sugar cookie recipe is quite dry as well. It cracks along the edges when pressed or rolled and is easily "broken".

I've never experienced a problem with the dough being so dry it doesn't take to cookie cutters, but if your dough is literally falling apart you may want to just spritz (or in the absence of a kitchen water spray bottle, sprinkle with your finger tips) cold water on it. (Like adding water to pie dough) Give it one sprinkle/spritz and kneed it in. Repeat until it just stops breaking. Don't go overboard and make it gooey.

I'd use water over oil or milk because it's the least likely to change the structure of your cookie in the baking process. Such minuscule amounts of water shouldn't yield a detectable change in the end product.

If this is a consistent problem with the recipe, in the future I'd decrease the flour by a tablespoon or two and see if that helps.


Put a large pan under it catch the drippings and you will not have a fire.


Can I leave the okara in when making tofu?

The okara has some unextracted protein and sugar but it also has a large quantity of fiber. That fiber will prevent the protein from properly coagulating. If you leave in all the okara you get soybean porridge.

I imagine you could leave in a portion of the okara and you would get a fragile but hearty tofu. The problem with this is that, with most tofu recipes, the beans are not cooked long enough for the okara to be palatable. With all that sugar it would also give rise to much more flatulence.

You don't have to throw the okara out. There are many recipes that make use of the okara for its fiber. It is pretty straight forward to use it in baked goods. Toasting it gives it more interesting flavor.

If you want to look into tofu-like products that use the entire bean you could research tempeh. The whole beans are fermented so you get a meaty product with all the nutrition of the whole soy bean.


I found some pointers here:
http://www.indiacurry.com/south/batterexplained.htm

(The following is just taken from the information in that link, I do not actually know anything about dosa)

It seems that the lack of fermentation could be due to a number of things:

Overwashing the ingredients (removes the wild yeast).
Using chlorinated water (kills the wild yeast). Use bottled water instead of tap water.
Iodine in the salt can also kill the wild yeast. Use kosher salt instead.
Temperature. As you have already noted in your question, normal room temperature in the US may be too low. You could try putting it in the oven with just the light on, no heat. Or if you have a gas oven, with just the pilot light on.


I own a similar square grill pan and have always had luck cleaning it with a stainless steel scouring sponge and lightly soapy water.  The spongy texture is very effective at getting down into the grooves.  No need to be especially vigorous - a couple quick passes will take out accumulated residues, and you can use a regular sponge afterward if you like.  I've no idea how they season these, but it seems to hold up quite well over time.  As near as I can tell, you can also re-season these just like any other cast iron when it does degrade.

Their statements about enamel are probably referring to the outer, colored finish - I also own a Le Creuset dutch oven which has the same enameling inside and out.  Care and feeding of that surface is of course totally different from cast iron.


Do I roast leg of lamb differently when shank is still attached?

Lamb shank (lower leg) is best served by long, slow cooking.  (It is my favorite cut of lamb.)  The upper leg is, in my opinion, best roasted until just pink, although it does not suffer unduly from longer and slower cooking than does, e.g., its beef counterpart.  BBC Food, e.g., has a couple of brief discussions on shank and leg.

The trick with cooking both together is to marry the times and temperatures so that both are at their best.  My suggestion (I have not tried this) would be long and slow braising with both, then, when the shank completes, remove the shank and liquid and finish off the leg at a higher than normal roasting temperature to give it a nice surface.  I don't think it will quite the pinkness I like, but it should still be a tasty meal.


How do I prevent burning the bottom of the bread when cooking over a campfire?

Many camping cookbooks recommend picking up some coals from the fire and putting them on the lid of the dutch oven while it is on a grate above the fire. This gives a more "all around" heat rather than just trying to cook the whole loaf of bread from the bottom. This image search gives lots of examples.

Personally, I don't try to bake a whole loaf of bread - I make English muffins. Quicker time to edible food, easier cleanup, you don't need to carry a heavy pot since the frypan is coming anyway, and if one burns the rest might still be ok, so less risk. (Important when you're feeding your children in the wilderness.) I wrote it up with pictures long ago - see if that helps you.


I did this just a few days ago.  The result was really quite good and I will never go back to evaporated milk.  I added no extra sugar and the result was less sweet than normal.  The texture was a bit fluffier too.