How to tell the proper amount of oil to use when sautéing vegetables and meat?

I would do it the other way round, I'd fry the sausages first, then add the veg.  This has a few benefits as I see it:-

The sausages will brown more evenly, purely aesthetic but some people will think they are not cooked if they are not brown.
You'll get the oil out of the sausages so you'll have a better idea of how much oil to add when you add the veg, if any.
The veg will sweat down in the sausage oil which is likely to be much nicer than the other oil
You can cook the sausages on a really low heat to start with so that they really get sticky and caramelised, then when you add the veg back in you can add a spoon of water/vinegar/stock to deglaze the pan an get that lovely sticky sausage goodness all over your veggies, which will be delicious.

You could optionally take the cooked sausages out of the pan and do the veg separately, or keep 'em in there, I'd probably take them out so I could turn the heat up a bit without having to worry about the sausages.

I'd say that when you do add the veg you want a thin (1mm ish) layer of oil in the pan.  Depending on the pan this is probably a tables spoon or 2. You probably don't need to scale up as if you are cooking a bigger batch you will probably use a bigger pan, and so a similar depth of oil should suffice.  If you are using the same pan, but with a deeper amount of veg, then I would add a little more, but I would make the depth of oil in the pan proportional to the depth of veggies.

Remember the golden rule.  You can always add, you can never take away.  And once the veg start to cook down and the volume decreases then the oil ratio will be higher, so start out with a little less than you think, just enough to   coat the veg when tossed in it.


You have no structure to the dough. There is not a strong enough network to support the weight and, from your description, it sounds like you only gave it one "turn". All the food for the yeast has been eaten up. If you bake it, you might get some minor spring but I wouldn't count on it.


How can I get my flavorings to flavor my carnitas all the way through the pork?

One of your possible answers is pretty close to what I think is the correct one. To flavor carnitas all the way through, put them back in the braising liquid that has been reduced since cooking the pork. You can create a kind of glaze out of the braising liquid, and toss the shredded pork in that (defat the braising liquid before reducing it).

BTW, I never fry carnitas. I may throw them on a greased grill, but I never deep or shallow fry them.


Making maraschino cherries is a bit involved... basically, you brine them and then flavor them. To keep them for a long time, you'll also need to can them.

Here's a great recipe for making the cherries, and here's instructions for canning.

The canning instructions are specifically for cherry topping, but you would use the same boiling-water canner process for maraschino cherries in their syrup.

To pit the cherries, I'd advise purchasing a cherry pitter (yes, there's actually a device for this) if you're going to be doing this very much.


How to make black peppercorns extremely fine?

Better grinding and sieving

If you think about it - spice powders are essentially flour. Pop it in a good blender. Blend, let it settle and sieve to required consistency. Repeat with oversized particles.

In an industrial setting this would likely mean a large mill and vibrating sieves, but you can, very carefully get the same results on a smaller scale. I believe some folks also use coffee mills for this, though obviously not one you have or intend to use for coffee.

For small quantities, you could probably use a spice mill or mill attachment on a blender. Just take your time.

Its also worth remembering a pepper mill cracks not grinds pepper.


How do you funnel food off a cutting board?

I have a few ways of dealing with this:

When using a small cutting board, use a bowl that's wider than the (smallest) dimension of the cutting board. If you can manage to swing (not fling!) the cutting board upright above the bowl, everything will fall into the bowl. Especially if the bowl is a bit wider than the board. Don't catapult your food off the board, but try to do it reasonably quickly so the board is upright before the food has slid/fallen off.
When using a large cutting board, I put the board flush with the edge of the counter. I hold a bowl next to the counter, and because I'm not relying on gravity, I'm able to very precisely push things off the board bit by bit (as others mentioned, use your hands or the back of your knife). If you have a circular bowl, you may want to create some overhang with the cutting board, so the edge is above the widest part of the bowl.
You can achieve a similar effect by putting the bowl in the sink and your cutting board next to and flush with the sink.
If the food is going to be cooked together anyway, favor using a big bowl for everything rather than several small bowls to put everything in separately. Less washing up, less change of missing a big bowl when dropping food into it.
When cutting large chunks, you can always just use your hands to pick things up. My mother would use a spatula and her hands and she should move quite a lot of food that way.
If you have a cutting board with a handle, you can actually use the handle as a mini-funnel.
With a bit of dexterity, you can make a V-shape by holding the back of the knife to the edge of the cutting board, and use that similar to the folding cutting board that moscafj linked. It only really works for smaller piles of food (depends on how wide your knife is, I guess).
My grandmother's trick #1: Pile the cut food, put a cup/bowl over it. Flip the board+cup. Take away the board.
My grandmother's trick #2: Pile the cut food, put a cup/bowl/your hand over it. Hold the board over a bigger bowl. While holding the cup/bowl/your hand in place, pull back the cutting board, so the food slides off the board and falls into the bigger bowl.

Which method I use depends on the food, amount, cut size, and what bowls I have available. I have a fair amount of plastic bowls specifically to simplify the whole cutting-and-storing part of our rather large meal preps.


Yes, the flavor and texture are a bit different but from a technical perspective it would work.

Fillets of sole are typically a bit thinner and more flexible than tilapia so if it's a recipe where the sole is to be wrapped into a paupiette (rolled package) the tilapia would have to be shaped differently (such as layer the filling on top of the tilapia fillet instead of wrapping it, or sandwich the filling between two smaller pieces of tilapia.)

Besides the fact that you like Tilapia, the other benefit is that it's less expensive than sole.


vacuum sealed kielbasa in a hot car for 18 hours - is it still good?

Sounds like you're going to need some new kielbasa.

Kielbasa isn't fermented, and needs to be refrigerated to stay good. Vacuum sealing reduces the oxygen in the package, slowing down oxidation and inhibiting the growth of some types of bacteria when combined with refrigeration, but that kielbasa won't stand a chance in a hot car.


While it is perfectly safe to eat tomato puree without cooking it, it is not generally recommended.
Uncooked tomato puree in a sauce can be undesirably sour and have a rather raw, rough flavour.

If you don't mind this then go ahead, but I would recommend simmering the sauce for at least another 10 minutes after adding the puree.


How do you sterilize a non-metal canning funnel?

You can sterilize using a chemical agent that is used to sterilize baby bottles.
https://www.milton-tm.com/en


Does tea play a significant role in kombucha fermentation?

You do not have to use tea to make kombucha. For example, the Noma Guide to Fermentation contains seven kombucha recipes, none of which use actual tea. A recommended way of storing SCOBYs when not brewing is to store them in a water + sugar solution, which needs to be refreshed every so often. Thus, your suggested method of making "kombucha" from water + sugar, then mixing with a strong tea would work in principle.

That said, I would expect the result of this method to be essentially a mix of tea and acetic acid, with little to no added complexity of flavour. For me, that complexity is most of the fun of making kombucha.


You can easily calculate a maximum calories difference, and not so easily approximate an actual difference.

If you measure the weight of your meat pre- and post-cooking, you can regard the difference as the maximum amount of fat that has been lost from the meat.  Multiply that difference by the number of calories per same unit, and you will have a good idea of the maximum difference in calories.

If you want a more exact number, catch all the drippings and try to determine the percentage comprised by fat. You could boil your drippings for some period, and what is left should be (mostly) fat.  That seems like an awful lot of work, but you may be able to do it once and decide that for your purposes whatever you came up with on that one calculation is good enough to apply universally.


In Poland any grains need to be inspected when delivered from farmer to the company that buys and stores it. And then it is inspected few times more before it reaches fina consumer. If you bought it in a food store, and if your country has similar legislation (many countries do), it should be safe.

I heard, but never was able to confirm or debunk, that sometimes food-grade grains are treated with chemicals that prevent germination and spoiling. Of course it might depend on the region you are in, but if that's the case for you, you will not be able to malt it, obviously. But you will see your grain not sprouting, so no real harm in trying.

Now, ergot. Chemicals it produces can cause hallucinations, muscle cramps and even necrosis of hands and legs and temperature does not remove these toxins. All effects mentioned was observed in people who ate it in baked products. Of course effects depends on dosage, but if you have any doubts about ergot and can't get your grain inspected, throw it away. For small batches of grain, ergot should be visible:

Sadly, it's less visible when grain is wet, and practically impossible to see in flour.

I believe in "better safe than sorry". Other fungi can leave toxins that are bad for you and can't be removed by baking, too. Not all of it will be as visible as ergot, and luckily most of them aren't as bad for you, either. Still I prefer to throw away some grain and buy safe one later than to risk poisoning.

For the equipment, remember floor malting. No need to overthink it. If grain was safe, just be careful to keep things clean.


Cocoa is a powder made from roasted and ground cacao beans. The beans are harvested, fermented, dried, roasted, cracked into nibs and then pressed to remove much of their butter.  The remaining cocoa liquor is dried and ground into unsweetened cocoa powder. This results in what is known as natural cocoa powder.

Dutch process cocoa powder begins with beans that have been washed in potassium carbonate, which neutralizes their acidity.  This makes the powder darker, it alters the flavor, and increases solubility.

Chocolate is made using the same process, but the cocoa butter remains. This results in unsweetened chocolate.  Of course, sugar is added to the sweetened varieties. The percentage of cocoa bean indicates the bitterness level of the chocolate.  Chocolate can also have dairy added (milk chocolate).

So, cocoa is a raw product. It is use to make cocoa powder and chocolate.  There are brownie recipes that include chocolate, recipes that only use cocoa powder, and those that use both.  You'll have to determine into which category your brownies fall.


How to choose non-alcoholic beverage pairings for filets mignon?

I have had success pairing steaks with freshly pressed apple juice, as the tartness helps offset the richness and fats of the meat and cheese. An apple/raspberry mix works beautifully, too, as does apple and blackcurrant.

While ginger beer and ginger ale may work, you run the risk of the drink taking over the show, which you don't want.

Two more pairings that work well: Apple and cherry juice is beautiful. Blueberry juice (100% blueberries, with no additives) have much the same mouthfeel as a good red wine, while giving flavor notes all of its own.


Cryoconcentration, can you do it yourself?

Yes, you can do it yourself:
People have done this to concentrate alcohol, and other water contaminants, at least as far back as the middle ages. Example:

  Fractional freezing -- "jacking" in old parlance -- has a long history in the United States. The beverage applejack was produced using this method by first fermenting apple juice into hard apple cider. Then barrels of this cider were left outside during the winter and the connoisseur would occasionally fish out the frozen chunks of water, leaving an ever-concentrated batch of hard alcohol behind. At some point in the 20-25 percent ABV range, the liquor would stop freezing at ambient temperatures and the booze was ready to consume as "Jersey Lightning." It was also used as currency.

Wikipedia has a short piece on fractional freezing, but you're better off looking into use by home brewers; ignoring the alcohol part of the equation of course.
Generally stirring is not required. You just let the liquid partially freeze, then pull out the ice chunks. The result is relatively pure water ice, and concentrated juice of whatever you started with. Obviously, you can repeat the process several times to end up with a stronger juice. As the phase diagram in link 1 shows, a -20° (-4°F) will get you alcohol up to 30%.
Bear in mind that the fractionation isn't perfect, and some compounds tend to freeze along with the ice more than others.

The existence of Applejack suggests that your apple juice concentration scheme will work. I'd just not bother with the stirplate.


Trusted Custom mold manufacturers for confections

I found a local mold manufacture who can produce exactly what we need in a timely manner. The folks over at Acme Apothecary have saved the day!

Support local business! =)
Thanks again to all who commented and thanks to the people at stack exchange for making this all possible.


Run a clean plastic mesh covered sponge (we call them "dobies") under hot water and then squeeze out excess water so it is wet, but not dripping. Apply a few drops of dish soap to the sponge. Using a circular motion, wipe the counter surface to be cleaned, creating a light coating of thin suds on the entire counter. Take a dry dishtowel and remove the suds with long, even strokes that go from one edge to the other, pausing to refold the dishtowel so that a dry portion is always in contact with the counter, which will remove the suds effectively. Use a damp dishtowel to go over the surface again to remove any remaining soap. The counter will be shiny and streak free.


Flavor profiles of Steelhead Trout versus Artic Char

Hard for me to differentiate in words, but Arctic Char should taste about closest to brook trout which for the US would be its common relative.  Taste though will vary greatly according to wild/farmed, diet and water temperature.  As the name implies, an AC is a cold water fish naturally, and a wild one or even one that is farmed in its native range will typically have very red/orange flesh tending towards translucent. The color can to some extent be faked by farmers using dyes in the feed though as is done with farmed salmon and steelhead.  If farmed, to my personal taste, it is still better tasting than most farmed trout, in part because it often comes from colder water farms.

Steelhead is indeed a rainbow trout.  The differentiation between them is naturally, a steelhead is the anadromous from of the rainbow, that is strains that evolved to be born in rivers and then go to the ocean to live and come back to the rivers to spawn like a salmon.  Many though, including many location fishing regulations, simply define it as a rainbow under a certain size, and steelhead over that size.  They have been transplanted all over the world and in many places are steelhead if they originally came from steelhead rivers.  In large lake systems they will often use the lake as if it is their ocean.  Farmed steelhead differ from rainbow trout only in size if raised in fresh water.  Those raised in cold waters and especially salt water will tend towards more orange or red flesh, but it really depends on diet and again, can be faked.  They flavor of a farmed one tends to be similar to a farmed salmon.

Anecdotally, my experience is that the farmed steelhead I usually find is higher quality than farmed salmon and a cleaner, fresher taste.  I speculate that they are from a better sourced farm with cleaner water and more access to crustaceans and less reliance on manufactured feeds, but that is speculation and personal experience and may be far from universal.  The flavor is consistently much higher than that of farmed rainbows that often have white flesh and are consistently fed commercial feeds in my experience.  I have rarely found char for sale, so most of what I have had was wild Alaskan char which I would put as very comparable to cold water brook trout which is by far my favorite trout (really a char).  A very clean taste, firm (for trout/salmon) flesh and bright color.

Any fish that is not orange or red, or if that color does not tend towards translucent is likely farmed, fed a commercial feed, and may be from warmer waters.  Either fish is high quality if wild or raised in near wild conditions but will have differences that are difficult to describe.  Each person would have their preference according to their own tastes though.


Pretty much all sugar, regardless of source, has to go through a series of refining steps in order to remove moisture and produce crystals.  Common white "table sugar" that we're familiar with in Western countries is the most refined, having gone through a whole series of steps to precipitate and "wash" the crystals to produce a brilliant white.  This process removes the molasses, which has a very distinct burned or toasted flavor, leaving a very pure sweetness.
Coconut sugar is produced from a different source (the coconut palm, obviously) and is reduced down to produce crystals in a similar way, but it's typically less refined afterwards.  It doesn't technically contain molasses, but it does have similar impurities that produce a similar flavor.  In fact:

Coconut sugar is subtly sweet almost like brown sugar but with a slight hint of caramel. However, since coconut sugar is not highly processed, the color, sweetness and flavor can vary depending on the coconut species used, season when it was harvested, where it was harvested and / or the way the "sap" or "toddy" was reduced.
Source: Wikipedia

Brown sugar, by the way, is commercially produced by blending molasses back into refined sugar.  Less-refined sugar, which can have a brown hue, is often marketed as "raw" instead.
So: coconut sugar can vary, and the specific brand that you tried may have been one with more of a bitter, burned, or caramel-like flavor.  You may have better luck with another, but keep in mind that most coconut sugars don't go through refining steps that produces a very pure sweetness like you'd be used to with common white sugar.
As for why it's popular... well, supposedly it's a bit healthier than cane sugars, particularly if you're concerned with blood sugar levels.  Products made with coconut oil seem to be enjoying a trendy popularity, as do alternative sugars (like palm sugar) and it's a fair bet that coconut sugar is benefiting from both fads.  It all comes down to marketing.


Rye and whole wheat flours contain bran and the germ of the wheat, which absorb more water than white flour, so your dough became too dry to stick to the dough hook. I would bet that the bread turned out a bit close textured as well. You need to add more water, how much depends on your flour, it may be up to an extra
30%. The way I'd attack this is to withhold the yeast and the salt, add some extra water (say 15% or 50g), mix it up a bit, then let it sit in the bowl for at least 30 minutes. This will give the bran a chance to absorb the water and you'll see whether it's still dry. If it's a bit sticky then that's good news, it should stick to your dough hook, you can then add the yeast in with a bit of water as it kneads, then the salt mixed with a bit of water once the yeast has gotten mixed in (salt retards yeast growth, you want to keep the two apart).

You could also bake a few batches adding more water each time until it works for you.

This isn't the first bread related question asked, I've addressed some common bread problems in this answer which you may find relevant.


What you're describing sounds normal to me. It's the result of overcooking them. The eggs themselves were fine. At a guess, you unknowingly messed up the timing for the particular batch described here (alternatively, the eggs may have been smaller than usual).

Over cooking hard boiled eggs will result in the smell you identified (and also cause the exterior of the yolk to turn green).

Further information: http://io9.com/when-you-overcook-eggs-you-turn-them-into-chemical-wea-1682497376


This depends partially on the cooking technique and the shrimp variety/size (=> thickness of the shell).

If the shrimp is deep fried the shell can turn crispy and is super fun to eat. However, if boiled, the shells are chewy and extremely unpleasant - in this case you have to peel them.

I am not familiar with the spicy garlic shrimp, but you can just try if the shell is crunchy, is pleasant to eat, and does not require excessive painful chewing - go for it, if not return to your old practice of pealing it and just licking the flavoring of the shells.


This is going to be tricky.
The problem is the fat. Cured and/or smoked meat is filled with delicious flavors and preservatives. In particular, smoke has antioxidants that keep fat from going rancid:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking_%28cooking%29#Preservation

Jerky is generally made with as lean meat as possible because the quantity of air and time to dry meat is a perfect recipe for rancid fat. The salt in the jerky will not help prevent the fat going off.

Sausage, on the other hand, is designed to be cured- or to be refrigerated and eaten fresh. It is made with quite a lot of fat. Drying sausage like you would jerky will result in a lot of nasty, oxidized fat. Not tasty and not good for you either.

You could use very lean ground meat and sausage spices, shape into thin strips, and dry the meat like jerky. It would not be like sausage but would dry to a meat stick style jerky that can be quite tasty.

Additionally, the shape of the meat will be an issue. Jerky is sliced thinly so that it can dry before bacteria have an opportunity to take hold. Sausages are thicker and would take a long time to dry. The salt in the recipe might be enough to inhibit bacteria while it dries but the recipe isn't intended for this purpose and it might be risky.

If you want your sausage to be similar to actual sausage then you will need to use traditional recipes which add cure and/or smoke and dry and/or ferment. This is really the only option if you want normal, thick, high fat, sausage.


What are the benefits of stewing on the hob over cooking in the oven?

The most obvious thing is it keeps your oven free; a range has only one oven, but four or so burners. Its also often easier to check on it, add ingredients, etc. stove-stop. Stove-top also lets you quickly turn up or down the heat. Stirring is easy stove-top, more annoying in the oven.

For what you're doing, the biggest difference is going to be where the heat comes from. Stovetop, of course, comes almost entirely from the bottom of the pot, the lid for example can remain fairly cool, meaning moisture evaporating can condense on it, and drip back in. In the oven, the heat surrounds the pot, so the lid will be just as hot—or hotter, even—than the base of the pot.

To take a recipe designed for stovetop, you'd perform all the browning steps stovetop (of course). Maybe add a little more liquid. Then bring it to a simmer stovetop, and finally transfer to the oven.

Putting a piece of aluminum foil over the pot (under the lid) can help keep moisture in.


Can I use a plastic cup instead of a ramekin for my panna cotta?

Yup, you can use any small food safe receptacle.


It is to create a custard or crème anglaise (I assume there is also cream/milk in the recipe).

If you do not beat the eggs, they will become scrambled eggs.

so the proper cooking term is "tempering" the eggs.

For example:

http://www.finecooking.com/article/how-to-temper-creme-anglaise


Your description of the end result as "pasty"  (which I'm interpreting as "very think, like a paste instead of a thick soup") implies to me that there was too much roux for the amount of liquid.  And since the strength of a roux is determined by the amount of flour, I don't think sauteing the onions separately would have had much effect.  Without having the full recipe including the amount of liquid, though, we can't say for sure that the ratio of liquid to roux is off.  But if you try reheating the soup and adding some more liquid and that improves the texture, then I think you'll have your answer.

As for adding the liquid a little at a time instead of all at once, I also prefer that as a method of thinning the roux gradually and ensuring as few lumps as possible; however, it isn't necessary if you're willing to do a lot of whisking.


Is there a way to infuse roasted coffee beans with different flavors?

Coffee shops flavor their beans by taking plain roasted coffee, and adding flavoring oils to them. After the oil is tossed with the beans, they are left alone to allow the flavor to soak in for at least 30 minutes.

The coffee flavoring oils are a lot like candy flavoring oils. Although I haven't tried it, I bet you could use those to flavor your beans.

In the land of everything available through the internet, I'd bet you could purchase these coffee bean flavoring oils on-line, and in small quantity. (We bought HUGE jugs of the stuff for the shop!)

I haven't worked in the coffee shop for over 10 years now (since becoming disabled in an unrelated accident), so I can't remember the exact ratio of flavoring to beans. I want to say that for every 1 lbs of beans, we mixed in .03 lbs of flavoring. I don't know what that comes out to be by volume, as we did everything by weight.


Dicing roasted pumpkin instead of puréeing it?

If you are trying to make a classic, traditional, American Thanksgiving pumpkin pie, use pumpkin puree. If you dice the roasted pumpkin instead of pureeing it, it will be somewhat chunky. If you make a regular pumpkin pie and it has chunks in it, it will not come across as a creative twist on a classic. It will come across as, "Ew, this pie has lumps in it." Even mature adults turn into children when you start messing with the recipes their mom and grandma used to make for the holidays.
That's not to say there's no way to make a good pie with chunks of chopped, roasted pumpkin. It just won't be traditional. My rule of thumb when putting a creative twist on a traditional recipe, is to make the new version different enough from the original that I can call it something else. That way the people I feed it to are expecting something new and different.
For example, you could make a savory pie with caramelized onion and spinach and chopped roasted pumpkin. Make sure the top of it doesn't look like a regular pumpkin pie, or someone will try to eat it for dessert and be very disappointed. A crumbly or crunchy topping would do the trick.
It also helps to have a good name for your creation. Something that references the chunkiness and makes it seem like an feature, not a bug. Also something that makes it clear that it's different from the traditional. Notice that I didn't describe my savory example as a pumpkin pie. I can't wrap my brain around calling something savory a pumpkin pie, even though that's a technically accurate description.


It's hard to say exactly which thing was the issue. Rice sticks to itself because of starch on the surface.

As Joe pointed out, if it's actually still wet, it's not going to stick. It doesn't get sticky until it's dry enough for the starch to be sticky instead of just starchy water.

But even if you did let it cook/dry properly, the extra washing and soaking could well have been an issue too. One of the main things washing does is remove starch. If you manage to remove too much, you could well stop the rice from being sticky.

So... I'd suggest following the instructions that came with the rice, and seeing how it goes. It might be suggesting less washing and soaking than you expect because it's a less starchy variety of rice.


Why does tomato sauce spatter more than other sauces?

Short answer: tomato sauce is a non-Newtonian fluid. Another interesting link can be found here.

Tomato sauce is an interesting creature. Think about ketchup. You try to shake some out and nothing happens. So you tap the bottle a little bit, still nothing. Tap it a little harder, and a little harder, and suddenly boom: a flood of ketchup. The "jumpiness" of tomato sauce is caused by the same physics.

Basically, tomato sauce has two things in it that contribute to this characteristic: water and tomato pulp. At first, the tomato pulp is just lying around every which way, which makes the sauce act a lot thicker. But when the strands of pulp are aligned, it makes the sauce act a lot more like water. Heating up the sauce increases the pressure on the sauce, allowing areas of the sauce to become much more fluid, resulting in bubbling, popping, and the flinging of tomato sauce all over your clean white shirt. The same effect is what makes ketchup come flying out of the bottle - when you whack it hard enough, the pressure changes the state of the ketchup, and the ketchup literally flows like water.

Edit: updated with relevant information

Unfortunately, when I managed to get a hold of Mr. Steingarten's lovely book, The Man Who Ate Everything,* I discovered that the passage regarding tomato sauce as a non-Newtonian fluid was exclusively regarding ketchup, and not general tomato sauce as I thought I remembered. However, this description is still a valuable one, and it does help explain this particular characteristic of tomato-based sauces (after all, ketchup is a tomato based sauce) [p 96]:

  It was only after I had send a stream of ketchup streaking across my
  wife's favorite tablecloth, a lovely hand-printed Indian cotton from a
  shop on the rue Jacob, that I telephoned Professor Malcolm Bourne at
  Cornell for a lesson in non-Newtonian fluids. Sir Isaac Newton wrote
  the laws governing liquids that flow like water: the more force you
  exert on them, the faster they flow. But ketchup is different.
  Composed of tangled red tomato fibers suspended in a sweet and acidic
  colorless serum, ketchup behaves like a solid both at rest and under
  low levels of pressure: but then, at some higher threshold, it
  suddenly begins flowing like an ordinary fluid. That's why the
  frustrated ketchup lover who loses patience with gentle taps on the
  bottle's bottom and prematurely shifts to a powerful wallop ends up
  with a gush of ketchup over everything. Ketchup and mayonnaise are
  known as Bingham fluids, named after the scientist who characterized
  them early [last] century.

*Personally, I think that The Man Who Ate Everything is a must-read for anyone interested in culinary science, and a should-read for anyone interested in food.

Second Edit:
Due to a handful of downvotes that I received while I slept last night, I guess some clarification is needed:

I just want to be absolutely clear here, I am in no way implying that ketchup == tomato sauce. I offer this information as an example of how tomato pulp suspended in liquid acts.
The fact that "tomato sauce is thick" doesn't really hold up. The question even clearly states: "Of all the sauces and creams I prepare in a hot pot, tomato sauce is the most jumpy", which presumably includes thick ones. If thickness was the only factor (and I'm not saying that it isn't a factor), we would see similar actions from cheese sauces, bechamels, gravies, and a variety of soups. While these sauces/soups do splatter, tomato sauce is significantly more "splattery." Put a pot of tomato sauce next to any other sauce/soup, take your pick, and heat them to the same temperature. I can pretty much guarantee that given similar conditions, you're going to be wiping up a lot more tomato sauce than the other one.

One last edit:
This article on Slate indicates that it's a combination of the above (being a "plastic liquid"), the viscosity, and pectin, as pointed out by Brendan in a comment below.


UK Pork roast: why can't I make crisp crackling?

Whilst I do not know about the practices in Denmark that would make the achievement of crispy crackling there, I can comment upon the Chinese and UK angle, and, offer some tips for you to get good crackling with pork in the UK.
There are a couple of characteristic differences with Chinese practice. Their pigs are not as genetically refined for low fat meat as the UK and European ones. The Chinese place great importance to a thicker layer of fat under the skin of their animals and this is a factor that helps make good crackling.
Secondly, they have a much larger proportion of meat sold "loose" rather than plastic wrapped in some remote factory and then distributed through a refrigerate distribution chain. This means that the skin of the pigs is rather drier too than a normal plastic wrapped piece would be. Skin moisture content is a critical factor in achieving good crackling. The Chinese promote belly and shoulder over leg joints as they (rightly) consider them better for flavour and cooking.
To get good crackling using typical UK supermarket plastic-wrapped pork -
Try Shoulder rather than leg - It's usually got more fat  underneath the skin.
A slab of belly pork is even  better although pretty uncommon in UK supermarkets nowadays. Those with butchers onsite (E.g. Morrisons) will sometimes have whole bellies to cut you a piece that you like. If you have a Chinese supermarket in reach of you, they generally have very good butchery counters and you will generally be able to get much fattier (tastier) meat from them.
Look for a good layer of fat under the skin.
Unwrap the meat the day before roasting, scald the skin with lots of boiling water by pouring it over it (not immersing the whole joint), dry it and then score the skin with a very sharp knife about 2/3 the way through the underlying fat. Rub generously with salt (You will wipe off a lot of this before cooking) and put uncovered in the bottom of your fridge skin side up.
The fridge will suck moisture from the skin. 12 to 24 hours is good. Wipe off salt, use a little neutral oil on the skin, season with white pepper and a little sprinkle of mustard powder, rub into the cuts. Crank up the oven to max and start the roast off at this for 20 mins (Open windows if you have it hot enough it'll be smeeching).
Turn down to circa 170/180 deg C for remainder. Use lard for the roasting fat if their isn't lots of fat rendering from the meat. Baste the meat often. Also, remove non-fat liquid from the roasting tin as you go. Using a clear heatproof glass container enables you to see the fat liquid split and to recycle the fat off the top back into the roasting pan.
When meat is resting do  not tightly cover or you will steam the crackling making it soft. If the crackling isn't crisp enough when removed to rest, slice off the crackling in one piece and put it under the grill for 10 minutes on high - watch it though as you don't want to burn the edges too much.


How can I make my own mayonnaise properly?

The oil needs to be slowly added to the egg, vinegar, and lemon juice base while being vigorously whisked. Only add more when the previous amount has been fully incorporated. I generally add the oil 1/4 cup at a time, dripping it very slowly into the base. Once the initial 1/4 cup has been added and emulsified it becomes a lot easier to incorporate the rest, and you can add it slightly faster, but still 1/4 cup at a time.

This is vastly simpler in a food processor. I have a Cuisinart 7-Cup Food Processor which has a little white pusher piece with a drip-hole in it. You can simply add the oil into this 1/4 cup at a time, it will slowly drip into the mix. Use the metal blade attachment.


Can crumbled feta cheese last almost a year?

I wouldn't claim to be an expert, nor would I want to give bad health advice. But generally, it's easy to tell if a cheese is still safe to eat - if, as you said, it doesn't have mold that isn't supposed to be there, and doesn't smell. If it were me, I'd eat it as long as it still has the same texture, color, and smell as it started with.


Is there a water kettle or dispenser that can keep the water lukewarm?

The easiest tool I can think of is a thermos - fill it with water at or slightly above your desired temperature and enjoy your supply for a few hours.

On a larger scale, a tankless heater can give you a basically unlimited supply of water, but is almost certainly overkill.

Please be careful with all devices that keep water at around 100F / 37C, this lukewarm water will encourage the growth of microorganisms, aka a biofilm. This is also an issue with all water dispensers / coolers, which should also be cleaned regularly.


While it is true that there are a variety of mints, I think your biggest challenge is that it is "late in the season."  I find that here (Philly, USA), in August, all of my herbs tend to develop a bitterness that is not there in spring and early summer.  While it may be the variety, I don't think it is the age of the plant, as my mint comes back each year as well.  It seems that the "soft" herbs are just past their prime now.  My rosemary and sage are fine, thyme is ok, but softer herbs like basil and lovage have a higher bitter component.  Try your mint again in the spring.

Another thought: Pulsing into a paste my also bring out flavor components that are not desirable.  What about steeping the leaves in the milk and cream (this would work if you are making a custard based ice cream and heating the cream), then straining them out?


Autolyse with milk or substitute the milk?

Your sweet bread recipe is similar to a milk bread recipe I have seen recently. An autolyse does require liquid in order to 'start'. It is safe to use a portion of your liquid milk to autolyse the remaining flour as you'd like.

Milk powder generally is ideal for adding lactic sugars for the maillard reaction. The higher the milk fat content, the greater the maillard reaction will be and therefore your bread will be darker and nuttier in flavour. Heavy cream will have the same affect, and it will create a really pleasant crumb and mouthfeel of the bread because of the high fat content.

What is your recipe?


How to apply oil when seasoning wood cutting board?

No need for elaborate application techniques (brushes, spray, etc.).

When I worked in an old style restaurant, the Chef had me:

clean the block with a wire brush**, then wipe free of dust
pour any cheap vegetable based oil directly on the block
use one of the towels from the linen service and vigorously rub the oil in
@wumpus idea for a next day second coat is good, we didn't do that

At home, you could use a painters wire brush, or if you are really motivated: wire brush wheel on an electric drill. Or a stainless steel pot scrubbing brush.
The one I used in the restaurant was similar to this:

The same brush was also used to clean the grill grate.

You can use any rag you want for the oil application. Strong paper towels would even work.

  I thought applying the oil with a towel would absorb too much of the oil making it wasteful.

For a home block, I'd guess you'd have 1 tbps absorbed by the block (that's a good thing). You'd probably loose 1 tbsp in the towel--the cost of doing it right.

  Also, after applying the oil to the cutting board and waiting a day or two, is it a good idea to clean it again with soap and water?

We just used very hot water on a towel to clean. Soap was forbidden. If it was soiled and permeated by something nasty, we would do the entire wire brush cycle again.

** Cleaning with the block with brush: I did it with a dry block. Some of the others would oil the block first, then liberally salt for the abrasive property, then wire brush it. My way gave similar results, but was easier.


Is there any difference between bakers yeast and regular yeast?

There is certainly a difference between different yeasts. Different kinds of yeast react differently, are "happy" at different temperature ranges, produce different amounts of gas, live for different amounts of time. In my little world, however, it's better to use a yeast that you use commonly and understand than it is to experiment with a different yeast that may not behave the way you expect.

The thing is "baker's yeast" is a generic term. If it called for rapid rise yeast, and all you had was active dry yeast, I'd say to go out and buy some, or your bread would become flat. Chances are, you have one of those two kinds. They both work in most recipes, but each have their peculiarities, and you need to adjust.

I'd give it a shot, and see how it comes out. If your bread ends up "whacky", then try something else.


Can you mix Red Onion chutney into bread?

Yes, you can add the chutney to the bread dough to produce a more flavorful bread.

When you add the chutney depends on exactly how you want it distributed in the bread.

If you'd like the chutney flavor to permeate the bread throughout, mix directly in with the wet ingredients during the initial mix.
If you prefer to have "streaks" of chutney or layers, you can proof the dough first, and just fold it in a few times before the final rise and bake.

Depending on the texture of the chutney and how much you add, these different approaches can have different effects on the finished product.  For example, if you're adding just a small amount of chutney and it is already pureed or mashed, mixing it early could dilute it in the dough so much that it won't give much flavor to the bread.  In that case, waiting to add it later and folding it in could produce "streaks" of flavor that might be a nice effect in the final bread.

If, on the other hand, your chutney is rather "chunky" or you're adding a large quantity, it might be better to mix it in earlier.  Adding a lot of big chunks after proofing can produce layers in the final bread that can separate, make baking more difficult (with pockets of "filling" that don't rise in temperature as fast), and/or make the bread difficult to slice.


How should I prepare venison hind leg sous vide?

I always treat venison as low fat because it rarely has any. It is grass-fed (at least it is in the UK) and so cooking will be the same as for lamb. This may be a more useful for timing guide: Sous Vide Cooking Reference Guide


Want to bottle and sell a marinade/sauce

Check the colleges near you as they may have a food incubator program. There are several in Louisiana both affiliated with colleges and privately owned. They have programs to teach you the basics, professors to help answer questions, staff to help take your recipe from small batch to larger quantities, and commercial kitchens for rent.

You can also contact the Department of Health. they were quite helpful when I was starting my company, especially with label reviews.

If you are planning on making an acidified product, you should look into a Better Process Control course. These are offered at some universities (some have online options) and are a requirement of most food incubators. Hope this helps.


Substitutes for wheat flour and their challenges in baking

There is no universal substitute for wheat flour.

The challenges are, roughly, that recipes will often completely fail if you replace wheat flour with something else. The particular questions you've asked aren't really answerable in a concise way. Yes, taste, texture and aroma can all suffer; yes, baking temperatures can change; yes, making (bread) dough is harder (in that you have to completely change the recipe). Cakes and pastries will tend to fare better than bread, but it's still not just a direct substitution question.

There are some cases where you might get pretty close on the first try (e.g. brownies), but if you're trying to be able to bake everything, there's really no way around this. The list of possibilities and ways to fix them is something many people have written books about, after doing tons of research. Starting from good recipes will save you from having to repeat all that work.

So, why is this all so much trouble?

Along with all the nice starches, wheat has gluten, which is (to oversimplify) a bit magical and difficult to replace. Essentially, the more the original recipe depends on the flour for structure/texture, the more trouble you'll have without using wheat. Specifically, good wheat-free bread is pretty difficult, since gluten (from wheat) forms the basic structure. If you naively try a flour substitute, no matter what it is, you'll probably end up with something absolutely nothing like the original recipe.

You'll have much better luck with the cakes and pastries, where the flour still provides structure, but a lot of it comes from starches, not gluten. (Indeed, cake flour and pastry flour have lower protein content - less gluten!) But still, baked goods can be pretty sensitive, so something as drastic as swapping out all the flour can still derail things.

You can find a lot of suggestions for gluten/wheat-free flour substitutes, which will likely work fairly well in most things where the wheat doesn't provide a ton of structure, i.e. not bread. Generally the best substitutes are blends of flours, not a single flour. For example, America's Test Kitchen came up with this blend of white rice flour, brown rice flour, potato starch, tapioca starch, and dry milk. You can also simply purchase something that's marketed as a gluten-free flour - but note that not all are created equal, and if you can make a well-tested blend yourself (like the ATK one) it will likely serve you better. Unfortunately if you're somewhere where some of those things are difficult to find, you may have to do a bit more research (and experimentation) to find something that'll work for you.

Some recipes will require modification - tweaking other ingredients or the preparation - and for others you will be able to simply use a wheat-free blend like the one I mentioned without changing anything else.

But if you're trying to wholly avoid wheat, rather than trying to ask what all the challenges are, I would recommend specifically seeking out gluten-free recipes for things you want to make. You can even find entire cookbooks for this. For what it's worth, while I haven't seen it, the recipes in the America's Test Kitchen one are definitely really well-tested. This will help you make things that work right on the first try, not the tenth try.

Another great reference is King Arthur Flour. When you're in the US, you'll find their products everywhere, and they ship. Outside the US you'll probably find buying their products problematic, but the website is still outstanding. All of their thousands of recipes have reviews and comments. If you're having trouble, you'll get a response from one of their professional bakers. They do a lot of gluten-free applications, not just bread.


From  this .pdf on fona.com  about flavor profiles:

  Everyone working to create a new flavor needs to have a common understanding of the desired flavor profile and the flavors they taste during its creation. This can be difficult since everyone’s perception, expectations and experiences are different. That’s why using words called flavor descriptors is so important to the flavor development process.

Follow the link to the .pdf for a list of flavor descriptors for many fruits and related items.


How can I make a raw vegan shrimp paste substitute?

As far as I know, shrimp paste is ground shrimp fermented with a lot of salt. You may have a hard time replicating this exactly with easy-to-find vegan ingredients, but I think what might work well as a substitute is a mixture of miso and dried seawead or kelp powder. The seaweed would give you the fishy taste and the miso - which is salted, fermented soybean paste - would give you the funky salty part.

I'm not sure if you consider miso raw, because it's often pasteurized, but you might find unpasteurized miso at a health food store or Whole Foods. It wouldn't be as "safe" as pasteurized and might have other stuff growing in it. If you want to make sure it's raw, you could also make the miso yourself. I won't tell you how to do that here, but there's sources online. You can also get you sick if you ferment it yourself and don't pasteurize it.

Another vegan alternative, but not raw - is to get some Taiwanese meat substitutes. I live near an importer in NYC that sells tons of stuff online, include shrimp and other fish substitutes. In my experience they are very fishy tasting, but that might work for this application. Here's a link to their seafood section. http://www.maywahnyc.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=1819


Can I microwave cooked and peeled prawns?

My best method for reheating frozen prawns is to cover them with hot liquid.  Broth is good, but water works.  I even just use hot tap water.  In a few minutes they are ready to eat.  Even if I am adding them to a dish, I thaw them in warm water and add after I have taken the pot off the flame.  Frozen shrimp just get rubbery too easily.


The way it is flaking off (flakes sticking out instead of breaking off) suggests it is an old-school (non reinforced) teflon coating, not an enamel.

If the underlying metal is actually stainless (not likely to be carbon, would not look bright after that abuse) steel, you could make it usable, but it is unlikely to be worth the effort - the remaining coating won't come off as easily as you think. If it is aluminium, forget it - bare aluminium cookware is controversial from a food safety/health perspective, especially if the unknown alloy used wasn't chosen with intent to be a cooking surface.

As it is, it is unusable as a nonstick wok - which is best for some stewed/braised dishes - but you want an intact coating for that.

It is unusable as an uncoated wok, where the last thing you want is any nonstick coating that can only take limited heat - even if intact that is. Some modern nonstick types that are rated to 350 or 400 °C (not °F!) could be ok for a saute/stir fry wok - old school soft teflon isn't.

The example shown would, at best, serve as a driver for bamboo steamers.


Can I make skim milk from whole pasteurize homogenized milk/yogurt?

There are many questions here, but the practical answer to almost all of them is "no".

To understand why, you have to understand what all these products are.

full-fat raw milk is an emulsion of fat in water (plus other components which are not relevant here).
full-fat milk from the store is also an emulsion of fat in water, but it has been stabilized so it doesn't break.
low-fat and skim milk are the same as full-fat milk from the store, but with less fat in them.
yogurt is milk, cultured with specific cultures
buttermilk (old meaning) is the liquid left after churning butter, consisting of tiny pieces of butter floating in whey. It is not an emulsion. It can be cultured or not, depending on whether you soured your milk first.
buttermilk (modern meaning) is a cultured product just like yogurt, but uses different cultures, so the taste and consistency are different.

What won't work

If you were to churn butter from raw full fat milk, you would end up with butter + buttermilk (old meaning). The result is not low-fat or skim milk, since it is not an emulsion. It is also not the buttermilk required by modern recipes. You could it for either antique recipes or drink it, but it isn't like milk.

If you try to churn store-bought full fat milk, nothing will happen, because the emulsion is stabilized.

If you try to churn yogurt, nothing will happen - Getting butter from yogurt.

What works in principle

If you want low-fat buttermilk (modern meaning), the only way is to start wih low-fat milk and culture it. The catch: you said you don't have low-fat milk.

Also, if you want your own low-fat milk, the way to go is to find some raw milk, pasteurize it yourself, then let it sit in the fridge for 2-3 days. Then remove the fat from the top. You cannot control the exact percentage of remaining fat that way, but is definitely lower than in raw milk. It is certanly not no-fat, probably closer to the 1.5%ish milk that is sold in many countries. The catch: depending on your location, it may be easier to buy 1.5% milk than to buy raw milk.


Soak and rinse... completely immerse the side of bacon for a few hours in clean, cold ice-water, drain, rinse, and repeat. A cooler is best for this, as it keeps the meat cool and offers lots of water for the salt to dilute into, otherwise a use a large pot in the fridge.

The downside is that this may also affect the "cure" - the smoke-flavor that many manufacturers add in lieu of actually smoking the bacon. Higher quality bacon may not have this issue (but then again, higher quality bacon won't be so salty).


Why all that sauce just sitting in the dish in these stuffed bell peppers recipes?

These recipes seem to be a misunderstanding how stuffed pepper recipes typically work. At least when we are looking at the Balkan tradition, where the dish originated - this answer focuses on it only. If there is by now a changed form in US recipes, it is not included in my use of the word "traditional".

Traditionally, stuffed peppers are made with sivriyas or other peppers with at least one small dimension, not the monstrous spherical things available in Western supermarkets nowadays. The rice is prepared in the pilaf way - it is fried in oil, then it can be slightly parcooked or just be used at that stage. It is mixed with the other filling ingredients (much more rice than meat) and stuffed into the peppers after they have been punctured in multiple places with a fork. They are placed in the baking dish and the liquid is added.

When you do it that way, the rice cookes in the oven. The liquid you mention is needed to cook the rice. The holes are needed for the liquid to penetrate into the peppers, the small dimensions are needed so that the liquid reaches even the middle, and the "small pieces of meat embedded in rice" texture is again needed for the liquid to get throughout the rice.

When the peppers are ready, they will still have some liquid left over in the baking dish. But after an hour or so, the rice will soak up the rest of the liquid, and you'll only serve the dish after it has rested.

Beside that, it is pretty common to eat the prepared peppers with an additional liquid - mostly yogurt, but I have also seen tomato sauces, but never something as thin as broth. These sauces are added at serving time, traditionally. For eating, you don't spoon the sauce, you break off parts of the stuffed pepper and mix the rice into the sauce before scooping it up. It is possible that the people who made the recipes in your link are using the liquid in that way.

It is also possible that they are just taking the peppers out of the sauce before serving and discarding it. Note that one of the recipes mentions as a last step "drizzle with a spoon of pan juices" - this suggests that you are only using a small part of it.


Is buttermilk another term for sour milk or some part of sour milk?

Buttermilk is the byproduct of butter making.
Butter is made by agitating cream (-> the fatty part of milk) resulting in clumps of fat and a milky white liquid that contains nearly no fat and some protein. If the cream was soured before (either by aging or by inoculating the cream with lactobacillae), the buttermilk will also be sour. If the butter was made from unfermented cream, the buttermilk will be mild.
Uncultured buttermilk is rarely sold, even if butter is made commercially with regular cream, the resulting buttermilk is soured afterwards.
As buttermilk is made from a fraction of whole milk (the cream), you could say it’s a part of soured milk. I outlined the process of butter making in this answer, that should also help understanding buttermilk.


Soak them for a while in warm water, and you'll be able to use them, yes.

However It is equally important to know that you should reserve the liquid for its essential mushroomness, and yet also that said reserved liquid should be run through a coffee filter to remove grit.


Oh yes. Different people use different categories, no one system is canon, but this bit from Cooking Light is helpful; I wouldn't hesitate to substitute within these categories.

Dark and oil rich: anchovies, bluefin tuna, grey mullet, herring, mackerel (Atlantic, Boston, or King), Salmon, farmed or King (Chinook), sardines, skipjack tuna

White, lean, and firm: Alaska pollock, catfish, grouper, haddock, Pacific cod, Pacific halibut, Pacific rockfish, Pacific sand dab & sole, striped bass (wild and hybrid), swordfish

Medium color and oil rich: amberjack, Arctic char, Coho salmon, Hawaiian kampachi, mahimahi, paddlefish, pompano, Sockeye Salmon, wahoo, yellowfin tuna

White, lean, and flaky: Atlantic croaker, black sea bass, branzino, flounder, rainbow smelt, red snapper, tilapia, rainbow trout, weakfish (sea trout), whiting

White, firm, and oil rich: Atlantic shad, albacore tuna, California white sea bass, Chilean sea bass, cobia, lake trout, lake whitefish, Pacific escolar, Pacific sablefish, white sturgeon

You mention that you have successfully substituted halibut or tilapia for cod. This list puts tilapia in a different category than the other two. That illustrates that fish species substitution is a fuzzy thing, and a cook shouldn't feel bound by any list. Even within categories, any change in the choice of fish is going to change the final taste of the dish, either slightly or dramatically. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, in fact it can be a very good thing.
Just as an aside, sustainability is a very good reason to substitute one species within a category for another. In the US these are to good sites to help choose a species: Monterey Bay Aquarium; NOAA If anyone knows of good sites that provide good information about other parts of the world, please leave a comment.
From leon, 2 good sites to help make sustainable choices in Australia: Good Fish Bad Fish or Sustainable Seafood


Infrared refers to the region of the electromagnetic spectrum comprised by wavelengths of about 1 and 100 microns.  As you said it lies just aside the reddish part of the visible spectrum (called visible based on our vision) and usually revealed by sensors based on semiconductors.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_spectrum

This invisibility is due to the fact that the energy carried by IR radiation comes in photons or quanta (think of them as small packets or specks of energy which gets involved in absorption / emissions / and other phenomena as indivisible entities) whose size does not fit with the electronic transitions responsible for what we call colours.

Their energy is less and correspond to molecular vibrations and rotations.

Temperature is - microscopically - the motion of particles. The energy carried by IR get absorbed by the food molecular vibrations and rotations and by concomitant collisions get transformed in linear motion too. I.e. the molecules move faster (this happens independently of the way heat is given).The final result is a higher T so that reactions and processes can happen).

The main difference with respect of other cooking is that it works, in principle, even in vacuum. No medium is needed to transfer heat (note that this applies to microwave cooking as well). No convection, conduction but just radiation.

As with microwave oven, the cooking is rather smooth and homogeneous all within the food.

As pointed out in the above comment, this cooking is more a sort of roasting or grilling from above. Note that these two types of cooking are basically IR based.

Every body (in physics sense) emits radiation by virtue of its temperature. All the time that cooking substantially involves a big luminous object, there is IR radiation at work (electrical grill from above, barbecue, roasting via a flame, ...).

Differences and peculiarities of each are due to the concomitance of more than one heating mechanism, like thermal conduction by metallic part, warm air, steam, etc. as well as the presence of a second component (water or oil are not merely media but can be absorbed and/or contribute to taste).

Indeed, from a mechanicistical point of view, the most apart from IR cooking are boiling and frying , which I would say are almost totally based on thermal conduction (convection carries heat to the whole body of fluid then the food is heated by contact).

Still, I do not doubt that your IR fried food resemble that fried in fats. Likely it is moderately crispy all over, more healthy, just a bit less tasty.

(Additional note. Visible and shorter wavelength radiations (x rays) do carry energy, too. Even more, each photon has a high energy than a IR one. It is just that they are primarily involved in higher energy processes at first. They heat up a body after some sort of decay processes that again result in an overall faster motion of particles).


Clean an entire fish before or after storing in a freezer?

Yes the fish should be cleaned and prepared before being frozen. Reference: http://www.helpwithcooking.com/food-storage/freezing-fish.html


Can I roast peanuts in convection microwave?

In the book "Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian", Madhur says one of the few uses she's found for a plain microwave oven is to roast cashews. She dresses them in a little bit of oil, then spreads them out on a plate in a single layer and cooks them in the microwave oven until they turn brown. I assume dressing them in a little bit of oil helps browning. I found a web page which has similar instructions for cashews and other nuts, but which implies the oil contained in the nuts themselves is enough to get them to brown. And finally, about.com has a page which is specifically about microwave roasting peanuts.


Is it OK to defrost chicken by running water over it?

It is common to brine a bird in a water solution so I doubt the water can hurt it.

For speed I would place it in a like a dish pan covered with water and just run a small amount of water to displace the cooled water.  You would get maximum water contact for maximum heat transfer.  And you would better keep the skin under 40 while thawing out the center.


Fully cooked chicken tastes kind of weird

Without knowing what extra ingredients were added during manufacture, I'll make the assumption we are talking about plain frozen chicken, and no other additives could account for the pink juices.

You said the cooked texture was normal, but you found pink juices in the bowl. This suggests to me that the chicken was not fully cooked. It sounds like it wasn't that far off or else the texture would clearly be very unpleasant all the way through. Did you ensure the chicken was fully defrosted before cooking? If is was still slightly frozen in middle this could be the reason why.

Microwaving raw chicken can be a bit of a hit and miss affair, microwaves do not heat food evenly, which is why dishes should always be stirred part way through cooking etc. I would use a covered dish or plastic wrap to trap the steam and keep the meat moist.

150C in a normal oven seems a bit low to me, I'd use 180C for 15 minutes, but it all depends on your oven.

I like a bit of colour on my chicken, so I would be tempted to fry these in a skillet with some salt, pepper and butter over a medium heat for about 10 minutes, turning every so often. This may give you better results with this particular product than the microwave or oven methods.

Chicken should reach an internal temperature of 75-85C (165-175F). If the meat splits easily with the blunt side of a knife that is generally a good indication it is properly cooked.


Mathris broke as soon as I added it into medium hot oil

You may have added too much oil. Reduce the amount of oil, or try adding butter instead. Butter usally tastes better and binds better too


When can I use a cake recipe to make muffins?

I can suggest two and a half ways to check.

Muffins are closest to pound cake. The closer the base recipe to a pound cake (1:1:1:1 sugar:flour:eggs:butter by weight), the more likely that it will give you something muffin-like. If there is a liquid added, this can still work quite well.
By thickness. If a recipe is supposed to produce a thick and spongy cake sheet, it will likely make something that works as a muffin (some people might tell you you're making cupcakes then, but this type of discussion is rarely constructive). What won't work are thin or hard cakes - making prinzregententorte or dacquoise in muffin shape, if possible, is an undertaking for somebody with serious understanding of recipe design and a lot of time on their hands.
The half criterion - try to stick with chemically leavened cakes (baking powder). Cakes leavened by other methods, for a genoise, can turn out to be structurally difficult to work with when the shape is changed, and almost certainly won't give you a muffin top. You have more leeway here though, so if you feel adventurous, you can try recipes of this type and see what happens.


Buy or make fresh bagels and store them uncut in a plastic bag with the air squeezed out of it in the freezer for up to one month. When you want to prepare a "like fresh" bagel, run it briefly under water (I used filtered water) so that the outside crust is damp but not soggy. Wrap it tightly in foil with a small vent, 1/2" long by 1/8" wide, on one side and heat in a 400°F oven (I use our toaster oven) for about 15-20 minutes, depending upon how cold your freezer is. The bagel will be as soft as it was when it originally came out of the oven and the hot oven will cause the crust to crisp through the foil. Don't let it over bake or it will be rock hard though.


Homemade Coconut Yogurt Turned Yellow on Top Overnight

I don't know if sterilization would be that important as I never made it. When you're cooling down the coconut milk, make sure to cover it with a clean (sterile?) cover so no offending bacteria or yeast floating in the air can contaminate it. The air is full of various microorganisms and they might've been a cause of your previous unsuccessful attempts.


Why are my cookies undercooked in commercial oven?

I think there are a couple things to troubleshoot here.

Check that the oven is working. you can buy an in oven thermometer to verify that you are getting accurate readings. seems you have done this already.
Could the oven be steam-injection? that could cause some problems with done-ness.
Maybe some other part of your process is different now that you are working in an commercial kitchen. Note act 14 in this episode, small things you change can have huge ramifications (in this case not letting the meat rest for a short time lead to a drastic reduction in flavor and color).


Why did my roast beef turn out chewy and not tender? Where did I go wrong?

The only mistake you made was the choice of cut, and maybe the quality of the beef itself. Round (in the UK/AU/NZ topside and silverside) is from the rear end of the animal, and is a working cut. Working cuts have to exert a force, so the muscle must have lots of collagen to distribute the force from the tendon throughout the muscle. Collagen is a tough material which breaks down in the presence of heat and moisture, not just heat, so working cuts make poor roasts or steaks and are better braised or stewed.

The upside to working cuts is that they have a stronger flavor, and the collagen when broken down by moisture turns to gelatin which adds to the flavor and mouth feel. A well-prepared braised piece of beef is as good as a roast any day in my opinion. It's also better value, round and other working cuts are much cheaper than tender cuts.

Your technique as described is perfect, and if you'd chosen a rib, short loin, or sirloin roast (US cuts) it would have come out beautifully. Where you erred was at the store when you chose a working cut for roasting.

Now some people on the forum are probably preparing a rebuttal at this point saying "you can roast round and have it be tender", and they'd be right up to a point. The best quality beef is reared and slaughtered better, so if you bought US Prime round it has a good chance of coming out relatively tender, however it's hard to find. My assessment would be for what you'd find in the average store in the US, which is Choice grade. Choice encompasses something like 75% of beef produced, so has a huge range of quality.

You can tell a lot about meat by touching it. Stick your fingers in it, if they go in easy and the meat springs back then you have a tender cut, if you can't get your fingers in it it's a braising cut. If you stick your fingers in and the meat doesn't spring back its old, so don't buy it.


How much "buffer" or margin of error is in food safety guidelines?

A lot of the "time out of fridge" and similar guidelines must have quite a lot of buffer in a cool domestic kitchen compared to a hot commercial kitchen for which they're written. This is because the temperature is the food is what matters and that will change much more slowly is the ambient temperature is closer to fridge temperature. There's less margin for error in the temperature something must reach to be safe, and even less in things like hand washing and not preparing salad with the same tools as raw chicken.A lot of the commercial rules are about proving it's safe as well, even if shifts change.

Much of the advice given here quotes US FDA rules, which go further than many other countries. Recently we had a discussion about Australian guidelines on cooling hot food, which allowed considerably longer. The US still has a higher incidence of food poisoning and especially botulism than many other developed countries, even though it had some of the strictest rules.


Suggestions for caramel from dark brown (muscovado) sugar?

I can't back this up with any evidence, but I think the reason it doesn't work well is that at the temperature required to caramelize sugar, the other "impurities" in brown sugar will be burned and gross. You might be able to get a similar effect by making regular white-sugar caramel and then mixing in molasses after it has begun to cool.


Short answer:  It is safe, although by far the predominant practice is to remove them before cooking.

This is, of course, assuming the "bits of stuff" you refer to are the beards of the mussels, which they use to attach themselves to their growth substrate.

According to ISSC, International Shellfish Safety Conference, you can leave the beards attached if you wish (emphasis added):

  HOW SHOULD FRESH MUSSELS BE HANDLED STORED AND COOKED?

  Mussels
  should be scrubbed with a stiff brush or coarse sponge and rinsed with
  cold water to remove any debris. Beards can be removed or left
  attached.

Lesser quality sources concur:

According to Blue Ocean Mussels, you can remove the beards after cooking--assuming the bits of stuff you refer to are the beards.

According to Yahoo answers, its safe but I give them little credence.

Here is one article at The Kitchn describing how to prepare mussels and clean them, with photos, in case it helps in the future.  They also note, by the way:

  The beard isn't harmful or inedible (just not particularly desirable
  to our taste buds), so don't fret if there are a few little threads
  left that you can't grasp.


It doesn't necessarily do any of those things well, but yes, it does (more or less) all of the things it suggests.

Basically all cooking is the application of heat, in different ways, to food.  So a multicooker like you mention is something that's capable of producing heat at different levels and different timings.

Baking differs from frying/sauteing/etc. in that some of the heat is not applied through conduction. Some of it is - the pan typically gets hot and directly heats the food where it is in contact - but some of it is either radiation or convection cooking.  This probably won't do much for convection, but because it's an enclosed container, it will heat the non-contact parts through radiation if it's constructed properly (i.e., it is properly insulated, and has metal walls that will radiate heat back towards the food rather than plastic that will absorb the heat).

You'll notice it doesn't claim to roast foods (as opposed to some other multicookers); some do, and those have a heating element in the top.  A pressure-cooker style multicooker can't have this (easily, anyway) and so doesn't claim any application that requires direct heat - only conduction or radiation.

Frying is cooking in oil (the oil version of boiling).  Anything that can produce heat in a pan can fry (and to be good at frying, it just has to be good at maintaining a specific temperature).

Most of the features it claims are related to an ability to precisely control temperature.  Yogurt making and sous-vide cooking require specific temperature control, but beyond that most of the features are just things you could do in any pressure cooker or slow cooker managed in the proper way.

The one feature it claims that I'm most dubious about is 'microwave'; it seems unlikely to me that it uses microwaves (it's too small really, for one), so probably it's claiming it can replace your microwave because it can reheat your food (the main reason many people use microwaves).  There are microwave/oven combos (If you're in the US, your local Subway restaurant uses one, for example, probably made by Amana), but they're much bigger.

Either way, I don't think this is something that can 'replace' an oven or similar, because an oven is going to be much better at even heating over a period of time, and an oven is much larger (you're not roasting a turkey in here).  It probably doesn't get very hot, either, compared to a good oven.  The main point of multicookers is that they can do several things in the same device - so for example you can sautee your veggies and then cook a soup directly in them without involving anything else; and they do several things that you might need different devices for (saving kitchen space).  They don't do them as well, but if you're in a tiny 40 sq meter apartment, perhaps that's fine.


How do you prepare a fresh deer for cooking?

It's easiest to skin the deer when it's still warm, but since that isn't an option let it hang for a day or two, if the weather isn't going to get above around 40 degrees F.

If this is your first time, definitely have a helper on hand to help you hold the deer. Have a hacksaw and a sharp knife on hand. A small electric knife/chainsaw is helpful but not necessary. Growing up, this is how we did it:

Peel the hide off (start from top, go to bottom).
Cut out the tenderloins with your knife.
Quarter the deer with the hacksaw and bring the quarters inside individually to cut further.

Be sure to look up some more videos/articles, but it's not too difficult. Have plenty of freezer bags and freezer space on hand. It helps to have a "team" cutting up the quarters...it's not hard but it's a lot of work.

Enjoy!


Try Hervé This's chocolate Chantilly.  Water plus chocolate.  Quite stunning.


Meatballs can be pre-formed, frozen, then cooked....or cooked then frozen, then reheated with minimal if any loss of flavor.  Soaking breadcrumbs (or not) is irrelevant.  If it were me, I would form, cook in sauce, portion, freeze, reheat when ready.


How do I prepare arabic coffee in a stone Dallah?

This is the result of experimentation with Daniele's answer and the resources of a normal Australian household.

Be prepared with a tea towel or other holding-item. Marble has a huge thermal inertia and insulation is a decadent western invention.

On the other hand electric kettles are awesome.

First: Wash everything thoroughly. I boiled a couple litres of water and poured them through the dallah. I then washed everything with soap and hot water, then rinsed with more boiling water. This told me two things: 1) The marble can handle boiling water. (Which was likely... but good to test), and 2) I wasn't going to be drinking any marble dust.

Then, from a good coffee shop that roasts their own beans, get very very very finely ground coffee. Their espresso blend is a good start. While single origin can be better, it requires fine-tuning to find the right single-origin for this taste, especially as...

Buy a satchet of cardamom. If you're going to do true Jordanian coffee (instead of Saudi or Turkish) it's a function of which spice you combine. I've heard of cinnamon and saffron also being acceptable, but the "everyday" spice is cardamom. This is where single-origin will get you if you choose a bean that isn't compatible.

Now here is where I cheated. I've got an electric stovetop (boo, hiss... rental apartment. I kind of have to deal with it unless I want to ask a colleague for a bunsen burner.) I also own an electric kettle. I boiled water in the kettle, then measured 250 mils into the dallah, which I placed on a "hob" on my electric stove. I then turned the stove to medium.

After about 5 minutes of watching, the marble was very warm, but the water never boiled. Technically, this is a good thing. I then added 2 heaping
"standard" scoopfuls (about 20 grams, the scoop that comes with a bodium french press) of coffee mixed with about half a scoop of cardamom. I let that sit on the stove for 4 minutes, stirring the coffee every minute until the crema recombined.

Pour (holding it with a tea-towel) gently into the marble tinytiny cups.

I have to take mine with a few dollops of condensed milk because my word this coffee is strong. Good, but strong.


What is a substitute for going to culinary school? Is there?

One resource I'm impressed with is Rouxbe.com, which is an "online cooking school" with truly excellent video content. (Disclosure: I'm an affiliate, though I haven't earned anything from it - I only signed up because I think it is great, I don't refer anything just to hope to make a buck). That link will give you a 14 day free trial. The thing I like is that it is broken down into really small, highly detailed sections, and the video is HD and shot extremely close up on the hands and pots so you can really see what is happening.


What are good techniques for getting gluten free bread to rise?

Baking soda comes to mind. Irish soda bread can be gluten-free, and uses baking soda for its rising action. The crumb is fairly loose though, did you want something that would hold together better?


A copyright date isn't a good way to determine the age of the food. It's likely that the copyright date is much older unless the design is very recent.

As far as whether it goes bad, StillTasty gives it 1 year past its date, unopened.


Two likely possibilities:

The potatoes had too much foil surface exposed and not enough in contact with hot coals, and as a result were just not getting hot enough.  Maybe it was a colder night (were you hiking at altitude?) maybe the coals had a lot of insulating ash, maybe the coals were already too cool (350F is not particularly hot for coals).   This is why burying the potatoes in the coals is more common.
The potatoes you bought were defectively dense.  Apparently potatoes can have a growing problem where the core of the potato is extra-dense due to weather changes, and that core takes forever to cook through.


Older goat tends to have a very strong flavor, hence why many suggest braising in strong flavors. You can braise your kid following these recipes - just remember to use 3/4th the amount of strong seasonings as you would for a regular goat.

As for grilling the meat, you could try to marinate the meat overnight with herbs and spices. Unlike chicken, which is a fairly blank canvas taste-wise, goat has a strong taste (even kid meat has a slight gamey/goat-y flavor). As I said, if grilling, marinate.

If you're braising or stewing, toss in a beer, some mint or basil and a few other herbs.

For the ribs - you could french them to get rid of some of the connective tissue and then marinate and roast them at low heat for a few hours to break down some of the connective tissue.

Good luck and great eating!


Oils and other fats can go rancid if old and not properly stored. Cooking oil should be kept in a cool, dry place with minimal exposure to air. In my experience, Canola oil goes rancid faster than many other oils.

One quick way to see -- smell your oil from the bottle. You could also try heating a small amount in a pan, dipping bread in it, and tasting it. It's best to isolate your components when searching for off flavors.


What supermarket fish is good for frying, besides tilapia?

Farm-raised fried catfish is very popular in the US South, and not much more expensive than Tillapia.


Using a paper towel as a splatter shield: Great idea or terrible accident waiting to happen?

This definitely falls into the category of an accident waiting to happen. No flammable materials should ever be used in this manner. Not only is there the danger of the paper catching fire from a heating element or flame, there is also the risk of it catching fire from a pan fire (and consequently making that situation worse).

However, if you want something disposable, a foil sheet works and won't catch fire. Additionally, if you want it vented so steam can escape, you can poke small holes in the foil.


I put milk in yeast bread some of the time because it results in different taste and texture than using water. Nothing to do with critters, which will almost all be yeast from the yeast (and their great-grand-yeasts), rather than anything specific to the milk.


You must remember that studies have shown that a normal avocado will have between 60% to 70% flesh. According to this Mental Masala blog post

  The edible percentage is consistent across the span of weights, centered around 70%*, meaning that the amount of flesh you get from a Hass avocado is relatively independent of the total weight.  The 70% result is consistent with UC Riverside's Avocado Information site, which states that the seed, skin, and flesh percentages for Hass avocados are approximately 16%, 12% and 72%, respectively.

So, it presents that across a test group of 19 avocados, there exists a linear growth pattern. Therefore, you could say that you can go to a grocery store and pick out any random avocado and it will very likely have a 15:15:70 ratio of seed:skin:flesh. Now, there could be the odd outlier with 1:1:99 or something, but that would be rare.


My bread cuts doesn't expand the way I like

To encourage oven spring, you want to have a steamy environment in your oven for the first 5-10 minutes of the baking period.  This will delay the setting of the crust, allowing better expansion.

For more details, see:

How to build steam in the oven for getting an oven spring?
How can I create steam in a normal oven to promote bread oven spring?

Good slashing can also help, allowing the dough to expand where it has not formed a tight net of gluten strands holding the loaf closely together.  You can see some examples of the effect of different slash patterns at:

What effect do different slash patterns have on bread oven spring?

See also:
* Why doesn't my bread rise in the oven? (Not first rise)


"Strong flour" and "Bread flour" generally mean the same thing -- lots of gluten, so the dough can stretch and incorporate lots of bubbles.

Not all bread demands high-gluten flour, but the traditional airy loaf of Western Europe and most of the USA does.

If what you're making is bread of that kind, "strong bread flour" is what you want.

If you're making a cake or a sauce, things will probably be fine -- try it. It might not be perfect but it won't be a disaster. It's worth having some less strong flour (often labelled as "plain flour") in your store cupboard.


I found the following information in a thread on Mamta's Kitchen forum:

  Because it is EU-designated external use only, [mustard oil] is therefore exempt from shipping regulations that would apply to foods. Thus, it can be shipped in a container truck that had previously contained, say, motor oil, or even something worse. This probably was the cause of the poisonings, because people have been consuming mustard oil for millennia without ill effect despite the current EU designation – which seems to be causing greater problems than it is trying to save us from.

I haven't personally verified this statement, but if true, it's best to avoid the "for external use" oil.


Is there somewhere I can see a diverse range of plating options?

The Art of Plating is pretty good. They have a website, but I recommend their twitter feed.

Other than that, I would refer to plain google searches. Cookbooks are good inspiration. I think that amongst books, Essential Cuisine is supposed to be one of the better ones for plating (albeit I don't think you would go wrong with something like The Fat Duck Cookbook or Noma: Time and Place in Nordic Cuisine).


Why should I wrap a cake tin in newspaper?

A Christmas cake is a large cake and you're cooking it for a long time. Insulating and padding the tin helps prevent the outside of the cake from scorching before the inside is properly cooked.


Stringy or seized cheese in a fondue can often be caused by overheating or too little acid.  Using a dry wine may reduce the need for any additional acid.

A good method for a simple cheese fondue is as follows:

prepare the pot
mix the wine and starch then bring to temperature over medium heat.
add cheese and stir continuously for 10-15 minutes until smooth.
season with lemon juice (optional), nutmeg, etc.
keep warm, but do not boil.


Which kinds of closures for spice and herb containers exist and what are their advantages and disadvantages?

The only truly, definitely airtight seals widely available are either plastic snap locks with a gasket, or bail-lock type glass containers.

Mind that there are a few spices (clove powder and mixtures containing it) that can be surprisingly aggressive towards plastics.


Add it in pieces to an ice cream after it is done freezing in the ice cream maker but before putting it in the freezer to harden.


potato and carrot dumpling,how would you make it diabetic frendly?

I referenced the recipe which has only the two ingredients, grated potatoes and carrots, and seasoning. For the potato, substitute cauliflower, cooked until very soft, mashed. Fold in the carrots and a beaten egg white to bind the mixture before steaming, rather than the boiling option.


Quantities of lactose, lactic acid, and other metabolites in yogurt

The following is quoted from this site:

  If you're lactose intolerant and looking for yogurt, go Greek. Greek yogurt, which is thicker because much of the whey, the watery part of milk, has been strained out in processing. This also removes much of the lactose. Greek yogurt supplies less than 6.8 grams of lactose per 6-ounce serving, compared to less than 8.5 grams in whole-fat yogurt or 14 grams in non-fat yogurt. Hard cheeses such as cheddar have even less lactose, between 0 to 2 grams per ounce. Milk, in comparison, has approximately 11 grams in one cup.

(Emphasis added.)

Also note that probiotic yogurt (ie: with the cultures still living intact) has the additional benefit of breaking down lactose in the gut where there is a lactase deficiency.  See here.

Sorry I don't have more specific info on other metabolites at this stage.


No. You are looking at "hooch", the fermented alcohol released by the yeast organisms, floating on top of the starter with little blobs of starter pushing up from the gas released below. Your starter is just fine.

Pour off the hooch and continue.


Windowpane test - Why does my dough fail it, and what is it good for?

I had this exact same problem for years.  And it was all about letting the dough relax.  I'd get beautiful crusts, but never EVER pass the windowpane test.  I was so confused.

Turns out, all I had to do was leave it alone for about 10 minutes, much less and I'd still run into issues.  The window pane test is intended to show that enough gluten has been formed that you can stretch the dough.  It's a completely non-exact test.  It's just to ballpark if there is 'enough' gluten.  By leaving it alone for 10 minutes or more, the gluten has relaxed and can be stretched to form the window pane.

This relaxing is the same thing that you may need to do while forming your pizza.  If you find that your pizza dough will stretch out some, and then pull back constantly - its good because you've probably got enough gluten.  Let it relax for several minutes and then pull it back - go too far and you'll likely accidentally form a window pane!

Enough gluten means that you've formed an efficent 'net' of gluten that will trap gases from the yeast and also provide some 'chew'.  You'll get better rise and your bread will have a better crumb.  Yeast breads without much gluten development are often denser.

When hand kneading, an autolyse will also help (well, it always helps, just especially when you have to do the work manually). By giving the dough a short rest after initial mixing, you let the dough fully hydrate and some gluten will start to form on its own.  When you come back to knead the dough, you should find the dough more workable and a little easier to get to the 'kneaded' point.

 What's going on with 'relaxing' gluten?  Kneading forms gluten, but it often also tangles them up a bit.  With a short rest, they untangle a bit and will pull out into long strands easier.


While the above suggestions would get rid of the oil splatter problem, they would also result in overcooked meat with a soggy exterior, as all the water created during frying (for example, chicken releases a lot of juice) would remain in the pan and steam the meat instead of frying it.

Your best bet is to get something called a splatter screen. I've seen one at ikea

, and at walmart, and I would assume kitchen supply stores would carry it too. A splatter screen is basically a fine metal mesh lid with a handle that fits over a variety of pans/pots and while it allows the steam to escape it also prevents the oil from splattering everywhere by catching in it the fine mesh. The best $10 you'll ever spend.


What would the best Cornflour substitute be for a Pavlova?

Cornflour in that sense being just starch, you should be able to use many starches with decent results. So corn starch, wheat starch, potato starch, rice starch, etc. will work, no matter what name they are sold under (e.g. you are more likely to find "rice flour" than "rice starch"). Try to avoid starches that are high in amylopectin ("waxy" starches), for the pavlova you want fluffiness in the starch.

If you are willing to experiment and end up with results that are farther away from the original, consider trying random flours from gluten free plants. I don't mean the "gluten-free flour mixes" in the supermarket which are enriched with gums, I mean things like oat flour, chestnut flour, etc.


My friend who was in Korea for a few months said that they are obsessed with cheese. It's not a traditional ingredient, but in modern cuisine they try to introduce cheese to some of the dishes - I guess this is the case you described. In my city (Poznań, Poland) there is a Korean restaurant specializing in bibimbap and the serve one option with mozarella cheese (and kimchi, it's a gorgeous combination).


Many recipes call for different ratios of egg yolk to butter. Egg yolk size can vary substantially. Your recipe is definitely at the low egg/high butter end of the spectrum.

Considering it came out looking great, add another egg yolk next time, and another the time after that.

I like 3 yolks with half a stick of butter, made with USDA AA large eggs, cooked sous vide (no double boiler).


Cooking lettuce is not as unusual as you think. It's kind of trendy to grill romaine,

and iceberg lettuce is often cooked in Chinese cuisine, both in soups and stir-fries.

There is a recipe for braised lettuce in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking,

and Lidia Bastianich, who specializes in Italian cuisine, recently did a stuffed and cooked lettuce (escarole) on her show.


Ice pop recipe using egg yolks by two different ways

Because the recipe writers were used to those methods--seriously.

According to Harold McGee, in his On Food and Cooking (revised) beating eggs and sugar until they are pale--or even until they thicken--is only useful to indicate that the sugar is fully dissolved.  Otherwise, it makes little difference to the outcome of recipes.


Curry pastes are just powdered blends in oil for convenience. Just use a teaspoon of powder and fry it gently in a couple of tablespoons of oil to release the flavours.


First of all, I agree with the others that there is no harm done by plastic bags for sous vide. I have read a statement by the manufacturer that brand-name Ziploc bags don't release anything below 76°C. If you think how much a lawsuit could cost them if the information turned out to be wrong, I trust that they are telling the truth. For other brands, you may have to do some research about safe temperatures.

If you are still unconvinced, your choice of material is very limited. You say it must be airtight and waterproof; I'll add that it must be pliable, so it can cover an irregular steak shape perfectly, without leaving air pockets, and it must somehow be able to create a seal. Also, it must not release any harmful chemicals by itself.

About the only thing that fulfills all criteria would be a wax with a high melting point, like carnauba wax. You could paint the steak with the melted wax, or, probably better, you could soak a piece of gauze in the melted wax and wrap the steak in it, pressing out any air bubbles. Then let it cool and set before cooking. The downside: not only is the food grade wax difficult to source for private people, it also can end up costing quite a bit.

Another option would be silicone, like the one used for baking pans. Unlike plastic, food grade silicone does not contain any chemicals which could leak - the medical sector uses the same stuff for prostethics and implants; it is safe to have it inside your body, so it is definitely safe to cook your food in it. The problem is that you'll need a sealable bag made of silicone, and I don't know if anybody manufactures such bags.

You might consider very tightly wrapping the meat in a caul (not necessarily an amniotic caul, a peritoneum should do nicely) and binding it, but I don't know where you can get cauls. Maybe you can ask a butcher. Also, it probably won't be 100% watertight (but still enough to keep the tasty juices in the steak where they belong, instead of having them flow out into the water).

If you are willing to relax your rules a bit, you can solve the problem much easier. I think you will agree that whatever hypothetical substance might leak from a plastic bag, it cannot travel far through a solid medium. So a steak wrapped in something protective and then sealed in a plastic bag should be safe - you just discard both the plastic bag and the presumably contaminated protective substance. Yes, it is possible that meat juices that have come in contact with the plastic bag end up on the steak, but the possible contamination should be hundreds of times less than if direct contact is allowed between the plastic and the meat.

If you can live with this option, the usual insulators used in the kitchen should do. They are plant leaves - I'd use grape leaves, but you can use practically anything that is big enough - and batters, like tempura batter (breading leaves an irregularly shaped surface, so I won't consider it here, you'll end up with lots of miniature air pockets). If using a batter, you will want to first set it in a pan with very hot oil, just hold it there long enough to set the batter, but not enough to warm the meat on the inside above the sous vide temperature. Both of these options wont't function on their own, as they won't create a sealed waterproof barrier. But combined with a plastic bag and later discarded, they should be a good solution. The leaves will also add a nice taste of their own.


Unfortunately, as you suggest, this is tricky. The short answer is: if it's labeled "vegetarian rennet," "vegetable rennet," or "microbial rennet," it is probably, but not necessarily, vegetarian. Otherwise, it is probably not vegetarian.

If you're willing to substitute different "cheeses:" Consider cheese types (or cheese-like products) made without rennet in the first place, such as acid-set cheeses or bacterially-cultured cheeses, like quark, cream cheese, queso blanco, paneer, certain types of ricotta, crème fraîche, marscarpone, etc. Clearly some of those are more traditional "cheeses" than others.

As for more mainstream cheeses: There are various guides, such as this one from The Vegetarian Society with a little more detail, including nuggets like that proper Parmesan (Parmigiano-Reggiano) cheese is never vegetarian -- i.e., DOP/PDO certification guidelines specify the use of calf rennet. Whey cheeses like mysost or traditional ricotta are also unlikely to be rennet-free, because the whey used is often a by-product of "conventionally" processed cheese.

Some places around the world have better markings; e.g., in India there is the vegetarian mark, which is required on certain packaged foods. In the US, for instance, there is no federal, legal definition of "vegetarian," though there are now some certification bodies (akin to Kosher or Organic) as noted in this Vegetarian Resource Group article. Other companies and markets have their own hieroglyphics (e.g., vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, low-sodium, ...), but they're not always clear nor are they standardized.

A couple other sites have guidance, such as Vegetarian Times, or lists such as Joyous Living.

For completeness: Make sure to understand the source of microbial rennet to make sure you're okay with the possible sources, but this wasn't really your question. Similar problems exist for determining the vegetarian-suitability of "natural flavours" or other additives, but that's a different question also!


How to apply transglutaminase brand "Saprona TG F"

Through trial and error I discovered that applying this brand as a powder is the best method.