fluffiness of medu vada without baking soda How do we keep the medu vada batter fluffy without adding baking soda?

I would like to use it less, hence trying to find a substitute for the ingredient, or better if the technique for cooking medu vada can be changed so that I don't need to use a substitute either.

I believe baking soda was a recent addition to medu vada and is not a required or traditional ingredient. It helps to make the vadas fluffier and it might make it easier to have a good result if your batter consistency is to not quite right, but it isn't required. Personally I find that it affects the flavor so I don't like to add it.

I think you can just leave it out entirely.

The keys to having fluffy vada without extra leavening would be oil temperature in frying and the amount of water in your vada batter. Also, whip the batter again after adding the seasonings so there is a lot of air in the batter to begin with.

The oil should be hot enough that when you drop a bit of the batter in, it immediately puffs up and floats to the top and starts cooking. If it immediately starts turning color, the oil is too hot. If it doesn't float, the oil is too cool.

If the oil is too cool, the vada will soak up a lot of oil and it will be soggy and dense and won't rise. If the oil is too hot, the outside will burn before the inside is cooked.

The batter should be almost like a very soft dough. If you hold a clump of it in your palm you should be able to hold it and not have it run out between your fingers, and it should hold the shape you give it. You should also see that it is a bit lighter and fluffier when you whip it. If it has too little water, it will tend to stay clumpy when you whip it up.

If the batter has too much water, it will not hold its shape and won't support the rising action and will be soggy. If there is not enough water it will be too dense and not rise well, so it can be hard after cooking.

It is easier to add more water if the first one is too firm, though, so err on having too little water if you aren't sure and test the first one you make.

Here's a recipe with a video so you can see how the proper texture looks. I really like Manjula-ji's recipes and demonstrations, they are very clear and easy to follow, so hopefully this video can help with the batter.

Your only possible choice is ammonium carbonate. The class of leaveners which can be substituted for baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) consists of

baking powder, which contains baking soda
potash, which is an inconvenient old-fashioned ingredient containing potassium carbonate. It is almost the same thing as baking soda, but as far as I know, it isn't sold nowadays.
ammonium carbonate

Ammonium carbonate has its drawbacks. It gives baked goods an off taste which I personally dislike. It is also harder to obtain, and more expensive. And finally, it's chemically very close to baking soda. Depending on why you believe baking soda to be unhealthy, the restriction may cover ammonium carbonate too.

If you can't or don't want to use ammonium carbonate, there is nothing you can do. You have to give up medu vada, and most other baked goods such as cakes and cookies.


What makes cooked chicken chewy? Fresh bought chicken, marinated for about 3-4 hours in fresh cream and spices when baked in the oven comes out as chewy at times. We have also tried marinating using yoghurt and changing the cooking time but its not as soft as it should be. What could we be doing wrong?

There are two main causes of chewiness in chicken when cooked this way:

Overcooking.   Overcooked chicken is chewy, possibly stringy, and dry.
Dried out on the outside.  Especially if the skin is removed, the outside may dry out (as well as overcook, even if the inside is not overcooked), leaving a leathery and unpleasant aspect to the chicken.

The solution for the first is not to overcook.  Use an instant read thermometer to know when chicken is done (approximately 155-160 F for white meat, 165 F - 180 F depending on your preference for dark meat).

The solution to the second is to cover, either with the sauce or braising liquid, or aluminum foil or similar so that it cannot dry out.

Make sure you use a roasting rack to hold the chicken up over the pan. Otherwise, it will begin to release juices and then boil, rather than bake.


How to quickly and safely defrost chicken? What is the safest, quick way to defrost chicken? Microwave? Running water over it?

I suppose that depends on what you're defrosting it for.

The microwave (on low power) is safe and quick.  The downside is that you're using a microwave, which means there's a good chance you'll actually cook the outside slightly in the process, and you're killing enzymes that are normally part of the flavour.  The lower the heat, the less the impact of this, but it's still a problem.  If I'm preparing the meat for marinating, stir-fry, etc., something with a powerful or thick sauce, then I wouldn't worry about it, but if it's going onto a grill with just a little bit of seasoning, you might want to avoid this.

Running it under warm water would seem to work, but I've found that it takes forever to defrost this way (the exterior will loosen up but the interior stays stubbornly frozen), and you're soaking it in the process.  This really isn't suitable if you need to pound or fold the meat or do anything complicated with it.

I would use the microwave if desperate, but it's really best to thaw the meat in the refrigerator or, if you're in a bit of a hurry, the sink.  It takes longer, but it'll turn out much better than the microwave in terms of flavour and tenderness.

P.S. One other word of advice: If you're making a dish that requires the chicken to be cut or sliced, it's best not to defrost it all the way.  It's easier to cut when frozen, and will defrost very quickly once it's in pieces.  I'm mainly talking about the breast here, this doesn't work so well with meat stuck to bones.

Update: I'm noticing a lot of recent hubbub about the dangers of defrosting in the sink / on the countertop or using warm water and I wanted to clarify something.  Please note that that the advice above applies to chicken that will be immediately cooked after defrosting and that the defrosting is done over a period shorter than 2 hours.

Raw chicken must not be kept at any temperature above 40° F (4.4° C) for more than an hour or so.  Do not defrost a chicken breast in the sink and then toss it back in the fridge.  Definitely don't try to defrost a whole bird this way - stick to the refrigerator or very cold running water.

As long as you follow the above precautions and cook the chicken thoroughly (up to an internal temperature of 165° F), you're not in any serious danger of salmonella poisoning, even if the original piece of meat was contaminated - and most chicken sold today is contaminated, for the record.

If the meat is going back in the refrigerator for marinating or you plan to delay cooking for any other reason, then you need to either thaw it very fast (using the microwave) or at a very low temperature (using the refrigerator or cold running water).

I really think everyone whining about food safety should use some common sense. ALL poultry is infected with salmonella and some other gross things that naturally live in their intestines, hence the stringent 'cook to this temp' guidelines. Cooking to 165°F internally kills all the bacteria; don't use 'pinkness' as a guideline, as bone-in chicken always has pink parts.
It isn't recommended to defrost in some ways because of the cross-contamination possible with chicken just hanging out in the open.

TL;DR defrost your chicken however you like, but wash your hands and ALL kitchen work surfaces thoroughly and often.


Combining melted chocolate with eggs I've come across a number of recipes (the most recent of which was this) which suggest various combinations of adding hot melted chocolate to a mixture that contains eggs.

The problem that I have here is that if I let the chocolate mixture go cold, it hardens and can't be mixed, and if I don't, it cooks the eggs.  I've tried stirring the mixture as the chocolate is added, which seems to be the most common suggestion, but it makes no difference.  Can anyone offer any other methods of avoiding scrambled egg cake?

The cocoa butter in your chocolate melts fully at 43 degrees Celsius (110 F). But it stays liquid until at least 30 degrees C (85 F).
The most heat sensitive proteins in an egg white coagulate at around 65 degrees C (145 F), most proteins stay stable until 85 degrees C (185 F).

As you shouldn't overheat your chocolate anyway, you have a certain temperature range where the chocolate will stay liquid, yet the egg unaffected.

Note that the real problem and culinary art therefore is not the coagulating egg, but the effect of warm chocolate on any "foam" you might have produced in an earlier step: Too warm, and the bubbles might pop, too cool and the chocolate will harden as the cool other ingredients take up too much heat before it is fully incorporated.

Rule of thumb:
Melt the chocolate gently and let cool until barely warm to the touch. Stir quickly, yet gently, when incorporating the liquid chocolate into your batter.
(And read the recipe in case you need to deviate from this.)

I melt the chocolate with the butter I would put in to my cake mix then place to one side, then separate eggs beat white untill nice and fluffy, prepare dry ingredients, grab the yolks beat with milk and other liquids once choc has cooled down start by adding yolk mix little by little it will look like it's start to turn yuk thats ok it will eventually come together, once yolk mix is done start by adding dry ingredients little by little wooden spoon works best, once all dry ingredients are all combined it should be a very heavy batter, take a quarter of ur eggs whites and start folding in then half whats left of your whites and repeat, grab your lined baking pan and bake for bout 40-45 min in moderate oven,
Results beautiful moist light chocolate cake...


How to roast vegetables correctly? I have heard that roasted vegetables are more tasty than steamed, but I have never been successful in roasting in small batches.

What is the best temperature to roast and for how long?  Should I add olive oil? How much?

Preheat your oven to 425F (218 C).  Squashes and root vegetables will take about 45 minutes at this temperature.  Mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli, and brussles sprouts will cook in about 25 minutes. Cut your vegetables into evenly sized pieces. Place in one layer on a baking sheet (parchment lined is good for browning and easier cleanup).  Drizzle generously with olive oil.  Season with salt and pepper.  Roast.  Turn the vegetables over halfway through the cook so that they brown evenly. This information, with pictures, can be found here.

Try frying in a pan on your stove, or on your grill if you have one.

Chop/Slice/Dice your vegetables into pieces that seem appealing to you, toss with a bit of olive oil, and fry over medium-high heat.

Let the pan heat up first, then add the olive oil, then the vegetables. Toss in some kosher salt and some fresh ground pepper, and stir. Stir every-so-often to ensure nothing burns, but you do want to develop some brownness which is where a lot of flavor comes from.

After the vegetables have developed a little brownness, or become a little soft, you're done! Usually takes about 10-15 minutes, depending on what you're cooking.

You can even try drizzling with balsamic vinaigrette, or other coatings for an extra tasty side.


Making jerkies less salty So yesterday I made my first ever home-made jerky. It tastes great (I suppose I followed a good recipe).

However, it is quite salty. I thought I didn't use a lot of salt, but I did use a lot of soy sauce.

I heard that the saltiness is important for curing the food. What should I do then?

You can also crust the meat with salt, removing the crust after dehydrating (or smoking).  The goal is to

pull the moisture out, and
to season

Note that traditionally, some bacons and hams are preserved by burying the meat in coarse salt, then hanging + smoking.  You can jerk in the same manner, by using salt to pull out the moisture, then remove from the salt (or remove the surface salt) and dehydrate. The trick is in balancing the need to remove the moisture, and the desired flavour.

I haven't tried it yet, but someone suggested dicing potato and putting it in with the marinde. I'm not sure if its the starch from the potato or the absorbtion that does it.


What is the difference between butterscotch, caramel, and toffee? I've always thought they were the same. Tonight I noticed a slight taste difference as compared to caramel when I had some "butterscotch" for the first time in a while. Now my assumptions have been thrown to the wind. Is butterscotch essentially caramel plus some liquor?

Butterscotch and caramel are very different things. The taste difference between the two is far from 'slight' in my opinion.

Caramel is typically made with granulated sugar, milk and/or cream, butter, and sometimes vanilla. The primary flavors of caramel are the sugar and milk/cream.

Butterscotch on the other hand is made with brown sugar. It's primary flavors are brown sugar and butter. It typically also contains milk/cream but they are not as prominent as caramel.

Toffee is butterscotch that has been cooked to the hard-crack stage.

There is no liquor in butterscotch.

There is a lot of leeway in what things get called caramel, butterscotch, and toffee. The important differences to keep in mind are that caramel is made with granulated sugar, whereas toffee and butterscotch are made with brown sugar and much more butter.

I totally disagree, because in my opinion it looks, smells, and taste the same. I think there is absolutely no difference between butterscotch and caramel.


Why don't most ice cream recipes include salt in the base? I've been getting into ice cream this summer and of all the recipes I've reviewed and tested, none of them call for salt in the ice cream mixture itself. (With the exception of caramel sea salt, and Ben's Chocolate recipe).

My question is why?

More info: I made plum sorbet last week. After tasting, but before churning, I decided to add salt to the base. It dramatically improved the "plumminess" just as you would expect salt to do. Furthermore, the ice cream turned out great. The addition of salt didn't have any effect on the churn.

So, why don't ice cream bases call for salt in the first place?

I can't read the minds of all the recipe authors, but I do have a couple ideas.

I've found it's definitely easy to overdo salt in ice cream. A very small quantity goes a long way. In most cases you don't actually want it to taste salty, you just want a tiny hint that people will only notice as improved flavor. The quantities are small enough that it'll be hard to provide accurate measurements, so you're stuck saying "a pinch" and hoping people don't use too big a pinch.

It's also just not the most obvious addition to most people. Ice cream can be pretty darn good without it. While everyone's used to salt in baked goods, as you said, ice cream recipes often don't include it, so there's not too much learning by example going on. We certainly don't usually put it on fruit! So if you're looking at recipes online that people have come up with on their own, there are decent odds that the author just didn't think of it, even if it would've actually been a nice addition.

Finally, just to clear up an oft-repeated misconception: in these quantities, salt is not going to mess with the freezing point, just like it won't affect the boiling point of pasta water. It takes a ton of dissolved salt to significantly lower the freezing point, and we're making ice cream, not seawater slushies. (Even if you did lower the freezing point, it'd probably be a good thing, since homemade ice cream is generally too hard, not too soft.)

pure water freezes at 0°C (32°F), water that has salt dissolved in it has to be colder before it freezes.

also there is a possibility of crystalization of the salt


Yolks flat and breaking We have had our own chickens for over 20 years and feed them on crushed grain and laying pellets and they eat greens in the fields. The fresh eggs have always been plump in the centre when cracked. Lately the yolks are flat and even if carefully broken into the pan they tend to rupture and leak as the egg is frying. Just like old eggs. what could be the explanation?

Age, pure and simple. I used to be a free range egg producer and our chickens were retired to homes happy to have them as pets and occasional layers by the time they were two years of age.

Eggs become larger as they age but as they get beyond two, most hens lay a lot less and quite frequently the eggs can show their age on the inside as well as outside.

Like humans, hens have only so many eggs they are born with and once those have all been released everything starts to slow right down until it stops completely.

The information below came from eggfarmers.org.nz WARNING, This link is a PDF file. (nz stands for New Zealand, but there is some good insight available on this .pdf).

  Yolk quality:

  Yolk quality is determined by the colour, texture, firmness and smell of the yolk (Jacob et al.,
  2000).

  Yolk colour:

  Although yolk colour is a key factor in any consumer survey relating to egg
  quality (Jacob et al., 2000), consumer preferences for yolk colour are highly subjective and vary
  widely from country to country. In general, New Zealand consumers prefer a yolk colour
  between 11 and 13 on the Roche (now DSM) Yolk Colour Fan (Sutherland, personal
  communication).

  The primary determinant of yolk colour is the xanthophyll (plant pigment) content of the diet
  consumed. It is possible to manipulate the yolk colour of eggs by the addition of natural or
  synthetic xanthophylls to layer hen feeds. This ability to readily manipulate egg yolk colour can
  be an advantage in meeting market demands.

  However, the ease with which yolk colour can be manipulated can lead to unwanted colour changes. For example, the inclusion of higher than recommended levels or incorrect ratios of pigments can lead to orange-red yolks (Coutts and Wilson, 1990). Similarly, diphenyl-para-phenylenediamine (DPPD), an antioxidant, has been reported to cause excessive deposition of pigments in the egg yolk (Coutts and Wilson, 1990).

  The inclusion of more than 5 % cottonseed meal in a layer diet will result in olive or salmon coloured yolks (Beyer, 2005), while the inclusion of certain weeds or weed seeds may results in green yolks (Beyer, 2005; Coutts and Wilson, 1990). Similarly, inadvertent omission of xanthophylls from the diet will lead to pale yolks. Both inadequate mixing of the diet as as well as excessive mixing of the diet will also result in a heterogeneous feed, and subsequent variation in the amount of xanthophylls consumed by each hen in the flock, This will result in egg yolk colour not being uniform throughout the flock.

  Pale yolks can result from any factor which alters or prevents the absorption of pigments from the diet or the deposition of these pigments in the yolk. These factors could include;

  worms (Coutts and Wilson, 1990)
  any factor which inhibits liver function, subsequent lipids metabolism and deposition
  of pigment in the yolk. For example, mycotoxicosis caused by aflatoxin B1 (Zaghini
  et al., 2005).
  coccidiosis, although this is rare in adult hens.

  Mottled yolks: (with many pale spots and blotches which vary in colour size and shape), occur when the contents of the albumen and yolk mix as a result of degeneration and increase
  permeability of the vitelline membrane (Jacob et al., 2000). Factors affecting mottling were
  reviewed in detail by Cunningham and Sanford (1974).Dietary factors which may cause mottled
  yolks include;

  The presence of nicarbazin (an anticoccidal agent) in the feed has shown by
  numerous authors to cause mottling (Jones et al., 1990; Cunningham and Sanford,
  1974)
  Worming drugs such as phenothiazine (Coutts and Wilson, 1990), dibutyltin
  dialaurate (Jacob et al., 2000; Coutts and Wilson, 1990; Berry et al., 1968, cited
  by Cunningham and Sanford, 1974) and Piperazine (Jacob et al., 2000; Coutts and
  Wilson, 1990). However, Berry et al. (1968, cited by Cunningham and Sanford,
  1974) did not observe yolk defects when Piperazine was fed at the manufacturer’s
  recommendations. Similarly, they only observed defects when dibutyltin
  dialaurate was fed at the recommended level but over a much longer period.
  Gossypol from cotton seed meal (Jacob et al., 2000; Berry et al., 1968, cited by
  Cunningham and Sanford, 1974)
  Certain antioxidants such as gallic acid (from grapes, tea and oak bark) and tannic
  acid (Coutts and Wilson, 1990), or tannins from grains such as sorghum (Jacob et
  al., 2000)
  Calcium deficient diets (Jacob et al., 2000; McCready et al., 1972, cited by
  Cunningham and Sanford, 1974)

  Storage time and temperature has also been shown to affect the degree of egg yolk mottling
  (Jacob et al., 2000; Coutts and Wilson, 1990). Jones (2006) stated that as the internal temperature of the egg increases above 7 degrees Celsius, the protein structures of the thick albumen and vitelline membrane breakdown faster. As the membrane degenerates during storage, water enters the yolk causing mottling and after prolonged storage, albumen proteins also enter the yolk increasing the severity of mottling (Jacob et al., 2000). In order to reduce the rate of breakdown of the vitelline membrane, eggs should be collected regularly, reducing the time they are exposed to higher environmental temperatures and contaminants, and stored at temperatures of 7 - 13 degrees Celsius and humidity of 50 - 60 %.

In their review, Cunningham and Sanford (1974) also identified hen age, oil coating of eggs and
movement of eggs as possible factors affecting mottling of eggs.

  Yolk firmness:

  The yolk of a freshly laid egg is round and firm (Jacob et al., 2000). However,
  as the egg ages and the vitelline membrane degenerates, water from the albumen moves into the
  yolk and gives the yolk a flattened shape.
  Yolk texture: Rubbery yolks may be caused by severe chilling or freezing of intact eggs, the
  consumption of crude cottonseed oil or the seeds of some weeds (Jacob et al., 2000)


How to cleanly slice hard-boiled eggs? After some furious brainstorming in The Frying Pan, I recently prepared some hors d'oeuvres for a group of friends. These snacks were meant to include a thinly sliced boiled egg element. Unfortunately I found that I did not have a technique that reliably produced egg slices at my desired thickness.

My Technique

I boiled the eggs and placed them in an ice bath. I shelled them and placed them, one at a time, on  my cutting board (leaving the remaining eggs in the ice bath.) I was hoping the time in the bath--about 15 minutes--would be enough to firm the eggs to aid in slicing.

I drew a sharp, honed blade (6" chef's knife that I use for pretty much all of my prep) across the egg and essentially tried to freehand it. The results were tasty and they were fine for my friends but I would have really liked them to be more uniform.

I did try wiping my blade between slices and this helped a little, but the biggest problem I was having was the change in consistency between the white and the yolk. The knife would hit the yolk and it would sort of drag or turn. I tried a few different grips and I ended up just kind of clawing it.

Alternate Ideas

For next time, I have considered trying to freeze the boiled eggs and letting them thaw slightly before slicing. Something in my gut tells me that frozen hard boiled eggs won't be good eats. It seems like the texture would be changed.

I have read about using dental floss to make a clean cut... but I don't see how that would help here. Is there some magical dental floss technique that I'm just not envisioning?

Some quick Googling also lead me to the idea of wetting my knife or adding oil before each cut. I really feel like the problem is the egg itself and it's awkward shape and consistency. But maybe there's something to this advice after all?

Results

As you can see below, I ended up with some small guys and some fat guys. They were tasty, but I WANT PERFECTION!

Egg slicers work very well for this - consistent, thin slices. It's also good for more than just eggs - mushrooms, avocados, mango and strawberries also slice nicely in a well-made model. Avoid the cheap ones - the wires aren't solidly mounted and will break with regular use.

Try wetting the knife, or use a wire slicer (some plastic tool with steel/nylon wires stretched across an egg shaped indentation). Also, make sure the eggs are hard boiled, and cold.


Substitution for baking soda in pancakes I attempted to make pancakes this morning, only to discover that I was out of baking soda. I tried substituting baking powder, but it didn't work at all. The pancakes didn't bubble on the griddle, and they were far too doughy. If this happens again, do I need to go out to the store for baking soda?

You need to use 2-3 times more baking powder than baking soda.  Be aware that your flavors will be affected. Make sure it's double-acting baking powder and you must replace the acidic liquid in recipe with non-acidic liquid.  You could also use some heartburn medicine that contained potassium bicarbonate :-)

Yes, there is a substitution. It is a combination of cream of tartar and salt!


Why reoil a cast-iron pan after usage? I've been recommended to reoil my cast-iron pan by letting it absorb some oil on the remaining heat of the stove before drying it, each time after using it.

Is it important to do so, and what difference does it make? There should still be a lot of fat left from simply rinsing and drying the pan.

AFAIK you need to heat the pan to let the oil oxidize and polymerize¹ so that it will form a chemically protective and non-sticking coating.

If you wash your cookware with soap you will have to do it every time.  For that reason some people don't wash cast iron at all and wipe it with a clean cloth or paper towel after using.  (Burned oil is apparently not very tasty to bacteria and fungi so your pan stays relatively clean and bug-free.)

From my personal experience, meat sticks to untreated cast iron like glue, but on a well-maintained thick iron pan it glides like on Teflon.

__

¹ I don't know if it makes any chemical sense because all references to polymerized fats I could google up were in relation to reoiling (seasoning).

Yes you should season the pan after each use.  I've used the Flaxseed oil principle.  It does work, but it makes the pans smell strange and the food tastes a bit weird.  This is because it is food grade linseed oil.  This kind of oil is used for oil paintings.

The best thing is to use either vegetable shortening or lard.  You can heat the pan on low heat. Use a cotton cloth to spread the vegetable shortening inside the pan, then crank up the heat to 7 or 8 until there's a bit of smoke.  This is the carbon layer being burned onto the pan.  Wipe the pan down again and place in the oven to cool.


What's the size of the plastic cup that came with my rice cooker? I have a cheap-o rice cooker that works fine for me.  It came with a plastic cup to measure 1, 2 or 3 "plastic cup" units of rice.  Water is added to match the '1', '2' or '3' mark in the cooker bowl.   It was great until the cup vanished.

Now how to pour in the right amount of rice?

Do all rice cookers use the same standard "plastic cup" unit?  By any luck, would it be exactly 1 cup, or 1/2 cup, according to a standard measuring cup?  Maybe I could dump rice and water into the bowl in any amount as long as they're in the right proportion by volume.   Meeting the '2' or '3' mark isn't important, actually, just getting great rice in the end.

The actual model I'm using is CKRVRCM061 and yes, of course I could google it, but it would be great to have a general answer which could apply to any cooker I or anyone will use in the future - for those of us with a talent for losing small important items!

Assuming you bought a rice cooker designed by a Japanese company (and apparently even other brands tend to meet that market's expectations), the measurement is 1-gou, slightly more than 180ml, which, by no coincidence, is also the typical measure of a wooden sake, cup, and is closely associated with a historical sake bottle size (approximately 1.8l)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masu_(Japanese)

It turns out that this amount, 1 gou of dried rice, neatly corresponded to a typical serving of rice. In practice, most contemporary Japanese eat about 1.5-2 gou per day; 1 gou of dried rice cooks up enough for 2 Japanese adults for one meal if you have several side dishes. There are other measurements that derive from the gou (or perhaps the other way around), such as the koku, which was considered the amount of rice that a single person would consume over the course of a year.

This is one of the human-centric forms of measurement that has survived the metric push; you can find various examples of this in many otherwise metric-converted countries. It turns out some studies show that those metrics often make certain categories of estimation easier for people.

Edited to cover the concern about matching the right amount of water:

It's worth noting that you don't need perfect precision for the amount of water, as long as you cook with the full cycle and not one of the express cooking modes. I can't remember the exact scientific principle behind it, but perhaps something to do with osmotic pressure. Some people use the remarkably effective method of measuring a certain amount of space between the dried rice and the water based on the size of their forefinger segment or thumbnail. It apparently works well for almost any imaginable size of pan (though you can have other problems with a pan too wide to have the rice cover the bottom). (Some types of rice do prefer more water than others, but within a single type, you have a fairly flexible range for the water ratio)

If you measure the water before you put it in, you can use internet recipes or general ratios to calculate how much to put in. Once the little cup is lost, you may as well just forget about the lines and use standard cup measurements.


What is the best way to re-serve day old meat balls? I've noticed that meatballs are one type of food that often tastes much better the next day.  So whenever I make meatballs, I make lots of extras and put them in my fridge to allow the flavors to "develop".

However, when I warm the meatballs up in the microwave they sometimes get dry or have slightly tough and rubbery spots -- especially on outside edges.

What is the best technique to re-warm / re-serve meatballs that you have made the previous day (or a couple days prior) so they stay moist and delicious?

My preferred method by far would be heating them in a pot along with some kind of sauce.

Failing that, I think I might try putting them in a tightly covered pot in the oven along with just a little water (just a tablespoon or so)--that would gently heat them and also keep them moist.

I can't yet add to this, however my meatballs are gourmet and any tomato based sauce would lower their standing.

What I'm thinking, even though I have not done this yet, is to reserve the grease left over from cooking them and reheating with that, probably in the oven.

Up to this point I have reheated in the microwave.  At work they do this as well, but then the meatballs sit in sauce in the steam table all day long.


Should I refrigerate hot sauce? I am an avid hot sauce collector. I own about 2 dozen bottles in various states of completion, some of which are a couple years old. They are currently in my refrigerator. Is that where they should be?

Frank's FAQ says yes.

This article on Chow.com says no.

What do the hot sauce experts say?

Most hot sauces are pretty inhospitable to foodborne illnesses, and can safely stay in the cupboard rather than the refrigerator. Nevertheless, the flavors in the sauces will break down over time, storing them in the fridge as opposed to room temperature will slow deterioration and keep the sauces fresher longer. If you use your sauces quickly enough then you probably won't notice a difference, but if you like to keep them around for awhile it's worth the fridge space.

There is an argument that making hot sauce cold will dull the flavor, and this is true. However, given how small the amounts used are they will come up to temperature very quickly, a dash of cold sauce on hot food will be warm by the time you get it to your mouth, so it's not a good reason to keep hot sauces in the cupboard.

The only time I would store a hot sauce at room temperature is if it will thicken up too much to come out of the bottle easily (presuming it does not say it requires refrigeration of course). Then I will keep it in the cupboard (not exposed to sunlight).

*If you put your hot sauce in the fridge it will ruin it by killing the culture that makes the hot sauce.......It will turn to a very thin liquid and it will be no good
*


What kind of peppers are used in Gochugaru (고추가루)? I'm trying to make kimchi, but I don't have any chili powder (gochugaru  -고추가루). Does anyone know what type of chili pepper(s) this is made from? I'm trying to find it at a normal western grocery store (Wal-Mart, Kroger, Remke...) I figured if I knew what type of peppers it was made from I could find something equivalent.

When I go to the Korean supermarkets in LA, I usually see half an aisle just dedicated to 고추가루 in all kinds of forms (mild to spicy, fine to coarse grind) and colors. I don't know that there's any specific pepper than it is all about how sweet and mildly spicy 고추가루 is supposed to be. You could start from there to make your own by sun drying and crushing whatever peppers are available to you.

If you are looking for a substitute that you can buy at a western store, try crushed red pepper flakes (the kind you see in the shakers at pizza places). You're going to be adjusting for taste/spiciness anyway, so not much of a dealbreaker.

You can order from Amazon.com if you can not find in market near you.


What is the name for a round flaky pastry that has a chocolate cream filling in the middle I'm trying to make a dessert I had in Palermo, Sicily. I wanted to find a recipe for it online, but I can't remember the name of it now. I know it's fairly common, but googling didn't help. It's basically just a large round flaky pastry with a large opening in the center and filled with a chocolate cream. The cream is not hidden by the pastry, but it is in the open. It's similar to a danish.

Edit by rumtscho

Unless I am terribly mistaken, this question is about this thing, only with a chocolate creme instead of vanilla pudding in the middle:

And no, I don't know an English name for that thing more special than "Danish", else I would have answered already.

That sounds a lot like a Czech Kolache, except that usually has fruit in the middle rather than chocolate.  I suspect a lot of European regions have something similar.  Some bakeries have made variations with different fillings

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolache)

Maybe you mean an "occhio di bue", it is quite common to find it in the italian bakeries and you can find the recipe here:
http://www.tortealcioccolato.com/2008/07/01/occhi-di-bue/
(sorry but the only site I found is in italian)


Can cilantro be used for tea or tisane? I love using my dehydrator. Can I use dried cilantro as tea, or with other herbs to make tea? If so, how would I pick herbs to use with it?

Cilantro is one of the herbs that doesn't retain much flavor when it's dried; it's unlikely to be particularly tasty when made into a tisane. On the other hand, the dried seeds of the plant -- called "coriander (seeds)"* --  have a pleasantly tangy and floral/citrusy taste.

They are occasionally used as a flavoring agent in beer, so it's perfectly reasonable to think of them as a candidate for tisane. The flavor of coriander is not dissimilar to chammomile, and might complement that. It would probably make an interesting mix with black tea, too -- in fact, it should be noted that coriander is sometimes an ingredient in Masala Chai, the sweet Indian tea-milk-spice drink.

*In the US, the leaves are referred to as "cilantro", whereas "coriander" most often means the seeds (although sometimes the leaves).

I think cilantro would make a quite unpleasant-tasting tea.  For other herbs, I suggest chammomile, peppermint, spearmint, lemongrass: blends work very well for tea.  You could also experiment with dried fruit, like blueberries, hawthorn berries, and lemon zest.  And, things I'm unsure how to categorize, such as rosehips, rosebuds, blackberry and blueberry leaves.  Experiment and have fun! :)
Re: other uses for cilantro, I think it works well in Italian and Mexican food.


How do you know if stone-ground flour is truly milled with stones? I ran across this article that originally appeared in USA Today in 2006. The author makes the claim that the label is unregulated and that manufacturers can simply say "100% stone ground" even if it's processed by a roller mill.

Does anyone know if, 6 years later, this is still true? If so, does anyone know which brands truly are stone ground?

The FDA does not currently have a legal definition of stone ground.

Companies like Hodgson's Mill, Bob's Red Mill, and Arrowhead Mills have petitioned the FDA to set a definition in the past under the concept of truth in labeling, to no avail.

Petition example

True stone ground would be hard to find. It will contain stone dust. Very hard on the teeth. But as said put on black paper under a strong light to see the dust. It would be a high priced flour if found. As stone grinding is slow to do. But does not produce the heat modern milling does. So a few nor nutrients in the flour.


Cooking 4 lasagnas at same time I would like to bake 4 3-lb lasagnas at same time.  Recommended time for one is:
375 degrees for 55 minutes, remove film and bake an additional 10 minutes for browning.  How much extra time is required and does the temperature need to be changed?

If you can fit all four into one oven and you use convection, just use the instructions for one. Like for all foods, you will want to monitor the progress and possibly decide to give it a few extra minutes or to pull it out a moment sooner. But that is a general advice that takes different oven calibrations etc. into account.

If you use a top & bottom heating element without convection, you might have to do some juggling as you will probably have two lasagnas on an upper and two on a lower rack. This means they will heat / bake unevenly and you should swap upper and lower at about half the given baking time. You might also have to extend the time by a bit, I'd guestimate perhaps ten minutes or so. But the rule of thumb is bubbly = done, so just have a look. Likewise for the final browning step, plan to swap once, watch to make sure nothing burns.

No change in temperature...probably similar time...timing is not really a critical issue here.  At 55 minutes, carefully lift the foil.  It if it bubbling, it is done.  Remove foil.  Cook until brown.  You could speed browning by carefully placing each pan under the broiler and watching closely.


How can I make nutritional yeast? I live in a country where nutritional yeast is not readily available. I'd like to make it. Anyone know how?

Other forms of yeast, such as baking yeast and brewer's yeast are easily found here. I understand these yeasts are essentially the same organism (Saccharomyces cerevisiae?), so I'm wondering if I can't combine yeast—instant baking yeast for example—with some kind of nutritional base like sugar water, let it ferment, dry it out, and "harvest" it.

I have to humbly disagree with SAJ14SAJ (I still have the utmost respect given the breadth of knowledge). Most of the steps you need to perform are regularly used by homebrewers and hobby mycologists to renew or isolate special strains of yeast/fungi that are otherwise unavailable. For instance, if you wanted to isolate the yeast used by Chimay to brew the same style of beer using the same yeast as the brewery, your best option is to culture the yeast from one of their beers. The only major exception with what you would like to do is the addition of drying at the end.

While safety cannot be guaranteed when doing this outside of the lab, following decent sanitary procedures it is absolutely possible to do at home. Some specialized equipment IS required but can be found at your local restaurant store, amazon, or a lab supply store. Basically, be clean, be sanitary, and don't be dumb and you should be fine.

There are 4 essential steps you will need to perform.

Create a sterile substrate for the yeast to multiply in
Isolate yeast cells and innoculate the sterile substrate
Wait for the yeast colony to grow until it flocculates (falls to the bottom of the solution)
Wash and dry the yeast

First, is create a sterile substrate. You can follow the steps here:
https://byo.com/stories/item/434-canning-yeast-starters OR
http://www.maltosefalcons.com/tech/starter-made-easy-pressure-cooking-your-starter-wort-ahead-time

I do disagree with their using a hot water canner in this situation. Wort can be either acidic or alkaline, so there is no sure way to know that botulinum spores have been eliminated. I would suggest using a pressure cooker at 15PSI for 15-20 minutes. Once they are cooled, they should keep for up to 1 year.

Next, take a small sample of whatever yeast you are working from (almost definitely s. cerevisiae) and use it to inoculate the cooled starter. The best practice here would be to wash the yeast first, (follow this guide: http://billybrew.com/yeast-washing). Then, mix the resulting washed yeast with a little distilled water, suck into a sterile syringe, and innoculate the starter. At this point, you want to close and shake the starter like your life depended on it. An even better option would be to use a flask on a stirplate with a stir bar. You want the jar to be protected from foreign bodies but still allow air exchange. You can modify the lid by installing an airlock, or if you really want to be avant garde, just remove the lid and use a rubber band to seal the top of the lid with tyvek. Unlike if you were trying to make beer, oxygenation isn't an issue here so the one-way functionality of a normal airlock isn't really necessary. Set it in a cool dark location at around 70 degrees F.

Let the yeast do their thing. After a few days of fermenting, you will see the yeast fall to the bottom of the jar. This is a natural process of yeast called flocculation - the small yeast particles tend to cling together, and eventually they will form large enough clumps that they will fall out of solution. The layers that form on the bottom of the vessel are called "trub" in brewing. It's a mixture of yeast and other undissolved particulates that have fallen out of solution. Once you see this has happened, you can move on to washing the new yeast using the same washing procedure as before. If at this stage you sense any off-smells, throw it out and start over - trust your nose and your eyes here. It should smell yeasty and bready. It shouldn't smell bacterial or sick-sweet.

Once you have the cake of washed yeast, you can place it on a piece of STERILE aluminum foil and place it in a food dehydrator with heat. It should dry into a large cake. This can then be crumbled down to be used as nutritional yeast. The heat should be set at 125-130 degrees, which should critically injure/kill the yeast, deactivating it.

The whole process will take a few days, but all of the steps above are done at home by homebrewers and hobby mycologists currently - there's no reason you couldn't do it yourself. Just make sure you keep everything clean and sterile as much as possible. If it seems like too much of a hassle, I'd look out for mail order sources of the yeast. I will warn you though, that this might not produce a ton of yeast without scaling things up a bit (which is totally doable).

Also in response to some other comments - bakers yeast, brewers yeast - they're all different strains of s. cervisiae. So, same species, different strains. The different strains are specialized at certain things, but can be substituted for one another in a pinch (the results won't be as great, but they'll work). Remember, baking was a byproduct of brewing as far back as Egyptian times, possibly earlier. We've been using s. cervisiae almost as long as we've had civilization. Possibly longer.

Also, fun fact - you follow more or less the same steps any time you are working with fungiculture (growth of fungi). This makes sense considering yeast ARE fungi. With a mushroom, you would take a thick sterile syringe to act as a punch, take a biopsy sample from the stem (pierce from one side clear to the other and then eject the sample), cut off the sides of the sample that were exposed to the outside world, and using the remaining portion the same way you'd use the yeast above to get a mycelial culture. The only difference is instead of using a malt starter like yeast, you use agar.

I´ve made something that tastes exactly like NutriYeast.
1 day 1 cup cashew nut on water
2 days - 2 spoon of wheat on water to germinate, drained and than 2 days more (out of refrigeration) with half cup of water.
drain the cashew and mix them with the water (now a dark murky water) of the wheat

than.. 2 or 3 days it out of the fridge to fermentation..

the taste and smell are identical. Perfect to eat with bread :)


What's the worst that could happen when fermenting sauerkraut? I've been wanting to make "REAL" Sauerkraut for awhile now but im really averse to food borne illnesses.

So obviously fermenting something is sorta scary to me! But tons of people make sauerkraut all the time. So I guess im asking what's the worst thing that could happen?

I mean is there anything that could kill me? or would something that would get that bad smell so foul that there is no way I could eat it?

If you follow proper procedures, it's safe. The correct amount of salt (initially) and the acid developed by the desirable bacteria population prevent the process being taken over by non-desirable bacteria. It works. Right around 2% by weight salt to cabbage (or cabbage and...) is a good number, with Stephie's German sources suggesting that possibly even 0.75% would be sufficient. More than 2% is NOT better (I have experimental results, even.) There should be no need to add water.

I personally prefer to use some red cabbage when fermenting in a clear container, as it gives me a visual clue to acidification progress. If using an opaque crock, no point in that (other than if you happen to like pink sauerkraut), as you should not open the crock to check (letting air in is bad practice.) I keep my clear containers in the dark.

IMHO after a lot of research before I dove in last summer, you should absolutely use an airlocked or watersealed container and leave it alone for 6-8 weeks. The "open crock method" that for some reason seems to be "traditional USA methodology" (why, I can't imagine, we had plenty of immigrants who knew better) is best avoided, as it pretty much ensures a mold battle. Properly tightened (not overtightened, not loose) canning jar lids are one form of airlock (do not loosen them - but keep the jar in a bucket just in case you over-tightened them, as it will contain the mess.) The nutty folks who are checking on it every few days are making something vaguely fermented, but it's not (IMHO) sauerkraut, which takes time; and they raise the odds of mold hugely. "Traditional fermentation crocks" with a water-sealed lid are another approach which works well, albeit generally with a commitment to a larger batch.

I've made 4-5 batches by now, all done under airlock; one (with insufficient weight) did poke cabbage above the liquid line and develop "kahm" yeast - I saw it, I left it alone, I tossed the top layer into the compost when I opened the jar, the rest is fine. With sufficient weight, that should not be a problem.

So, for the first time ever, I'll plant cabbage next year (I dislike cabbage, but I like sauerkraut.)

Getting oxygen into the mix during fermentation can allow the botulism bacteria to grow. This is a particularly virulent bacteria, often fatal. I don't know if it has a characteristic taste (suspect not), but apparently it does show as a discoloured layer on top.

Having said that, I have made sauerkraut that did have an air breach early on and I ate it without ill effect.

Some tips from a website

Weigh it down: Keep your cabbage or other food down under the brine. If it floats to the top, it’s exposed to air, where it can pick up nasty bugs.

Brine it up: If you have too low a water/brine level, it gives undesirable bacteria and yeasts the food they need to grow on the surface. You can scrape off this “scum,” but you’ll be less likely to see it if you have a sufficient level of brine. Rule of thumb: one inch of brine above the sauerkraut.

Lighten the load: If you pack your jar too full, you may not leave enough space for the fermenting reaction to take place without causing an overflow. A good rule of thumb—pack your jars only 75 percent full. Less than that can leave in too much oxygen. More can push out your brine.

Salt it: Keep your salt ratio to three tablespoons to each quart of water. Salt makes the mixture less friendly to bugs.

Seal it: If your jar doesn’t keep out the oxygen, your yeast in the ferment could be oxidized, forming vinegar. It will also increase risk of mold. This may be the most important step in making fermented foods—make sure the environment is oxygen-free. If you notice browned cabbage, a yeasty odor, slime, or mold, could be your jars aren’t airtight. Jars with airlocks are recommended, as they keep out oxygen, but allow for off-gassing.

Measure it: Temperature is important in the making of fermented foods.


What kind of teaspoon is this? I have a cutlery set that came with 7 teaspoons. Six of them are the same, but one is different. In the following image I have three of the six on the left side of the picture and the different one on the right.

Unfortunately I don't have the box the set came in, but on the back of all the cutlery it says "justinus edelstahl 18-10". I was unable to find information online about what teaspoon that is.

What is the one on the right used for? Why does it have a flat tip? And why was there only one in the set?

The set was for 6 people, so I have 6 spoons, 6 knifes, 6 forks, 6 little forks, 6 (normal) teaspoons, a few other things, and this strange teaspoon. It had its own special place in the set, so it is not a defect. And it doesn't look cut or chopped or smoothed. It was created like that. It definitely had its purpose.

Like dlb suggested it is a spoon for sugar. At least in Germany this type of spoon is not uncommon with sets of cuttlery.

Update:

For an impression of various forms of spoons check a picture search. I searched for "Zuckerlöffel" (German for sugar spoon) and found a wide range of different forms.

As for the specific form I don't think there is a special reason other for having a different looking  spoon that fits the design of the cutlery set.

Historically sugar spoons where of a complete different design than your everyday cutlery as sugar was quite expensive and not used everyday. There are even examples of sugar pots that have small locks on them so that the servants weren't able to nick some sugar if laying the table.

It's a jelly/jam spoon, according to a site that explains antique flatware.


how to get a ciabatta with a more uniform shape My ciabattas tend to have be domed along both axis. So towards the ends they are too thin, and near the middle I end up making them are thicker than I want. I think this is because the dough has so much water in it. When I am resting it on the tray before putting it in the oven, and even when I first put it in the oven it spreads out at the sides and each end. And ideas how to get a more even round shape along the whole loaf?

The actual bread itself is quite good otherwise, but at the edges there is too much crust and too little content.

Here's why I think this is happening:
In the oven, the internal temperature of the bread is going to transition from room temperature to cooked.  The only way heat it introduced into the bread is at the surface.  The sides have significantly more surface area than the center.  The problem you are having is the sides are making this transition way before the center is.  So the sides have very little time to rise and get cooked while the middle is in the prime rising temperature.  So the yeast in the center has substantially longer to work before it is too hot for it.

You can try forming the bread thinner toward the center and thicker toward the edges.  If you get the thickness right, it should be uniform.

I have also had good experience cooking on a stone.  It will almost certainly speed up cooking time, but should help keep the temperature transition uniform across the whole loaf.  So you don't end up with a thick part and a thin part; if you start out with a uniform thickness, you end up with a uniform thickness

Have never tried making ciabatta, only french and sourdough french loaves; believe the problem you are running into is the same as when I first started though. Also believe that ciabatta, like French bread, is a bread which is not kneaded or uses very little kneading, due to it's wonderful texture.  I give credit to "Joy of Cooking" for the solution, paraphrased as I don't have the cookbook with me:

After the first rising, when ready to form loaves, turn out the dough for one loaf on a floured flat surface and pat it gently (this is very important, if the dough is over worked, the gluten will form the long strands which give the fine texture, which you probably don't want) into a rectangle of the length of the finished loaf.  When it is to the length and breadth desired, and of a fairly uniform thickness, begin rolling the dough toward the center along the long edges, pinching or pressing as you roll to remove air pockets.  When both sides have been rolled an meet in the middle, turn the loaf over onto the baking pan for the final rising and tuck and pinch the ends or turn them under or both and form the loaf.

A couple of additional things:

Make sure dough in the center of your rectangle is thick, as some of my loaves have split there when baking.

I make my dough as thick as reasonably possible, which help it keep it's shape.

I preheat the oven to hot, 230 C / 450 F before putting in the loaves, and turn it down to the suggested temperature immediately after closing the oven door, which really causes a good spring in the oven rising, and sets the skin fairly quickly, helping to hold shape. This technique is as close as I know of to using a stone to cook on.

Good luck!


Weird problem with curry sauce For a family get-together, I bought 20 large containers of curry sauce from my favourite Indian restaurant - 15 Dansak and 5 Korma. I collected the sauces on Thursday evening. The containers were all hot to the touch. Then I un-wrapped and diced the appropriate amount of chicken thigh fillets. These were bought the day before, well in date and stored in the fridge. I browned off the chicken in batches with a little ghee and garlic. Then I put all the chicken in a big pan and boiled in water for around 25 minutes. Then I tipped all the sauces into two separate pans - one Dansak and one korma. The sauces were still quite warm. I then added the cooked chicken to the sauces, put the lids on and stored them in a very cold greenhouse overnight.

The following evening I took them to the party venue and warmed them up, simmering for a while, to be ready for the guests. Around 3 hours later almost all the Korma had gone, along with some of the  Dansak. At this point I decided to try some of the Dansak. Putting it in a bowl with some rice I noticed a very slight sour smell. I took a couple of mouthfuls and then I had a good sniff of what was left in the pan. Again it smelled a tiny bit funny so... To be on the safe side I removed the pan from the buffet and put it in the kitchen. Half an hour later I asked my friend to come to the kitchen to have a smell and tell me what he thought. Now it smelled pretty bad. It wasn't on any heat but was sort of fermenting by itself, with little light coloured bubbles. It smelled pretty bad (sour) so I put the pan outside. I was now quite worried that I might have poisoned some people. I went back and had a smell of what was left in the pot of Korma. This smelled just fine.

A couple of hours later I went outside to dispose of the contents of the Dansak pot. Now  smell was absolutely disgusting. Holding our noses, my friend and I tipped it into a double plastic bag and we could see that it was actually separating and was really horrible.

This was a couple of days ago. To my relief no-one has become sick. I can still 'taste' the horrible smell.

I have done this exact same thing several times before, with no problems at all. I just wonder if anyone might know what could have caused this to happen this time. It's really bugging me.

I think the times you did it with no troubles you used smaller portions, right? These big portions simply do not cool down quickly enough, and the temperature stays too long in the danger zone, say between thirty and sixty celsius. Bacteria grow very quickly around these temps, and so they spoiled your curries. Their waste is lactic acid or alcohol and carbondioxide, and that were the bubbles and the smell. You solve it by cooling down rapidly, so in smaller portions. The other option is that it stayed too long in the danger zone on the buffet, it was the last to go. Probably both... buffets are dangerous in the best of circumstances...in that case you also have to serve smaller portions on the buffet next time.

When leaving curry to cool, you must allow it to cool to room temperature naturally first. Before storing in a cold greenhouse or fridge. Another thing to note is that if you reheat the sauce, you shouldnt put an airtight lid on it right away, you must allow for some of the steam to escape. Otherwise you will have condensation on the inside. It is the condensation water that falls back into the sauce which spoils it. I have worked in an indian catering firm based in the UK, we have cooked curry for up to 400 people in 1 pot. The quantity has nothing to do with it. Its about proper storage and cooling time.


How to thicken Chili without compromising flavor I enjoy adding beer to a pot of chili for taste, but at times find the end result is too soupy. What's a good way to thicken it without overcooking or compromising the flavor?

As noted above, reducing the liquid through evaporation will thicken up the chili but you run the risk of burning/scorching the bottom and it can take a long time at lower temperatures. What I like to do is to take some of the beans (I prefer black beans in mine) and mash them up into a thick paste and then stir that into the chili. The starches from the beans will help thicken up the chili and you aren't adding anything that isn't already there. I have also seen people do similar things with cornbread.

I can't boil to evaporate because my chili recipe requires the ground chili paste. garlic, ginger, cilantro, etc to remain fresh and uncooked.

My family tradition has been to add tapioca or corn starch. Boil half a cup of water in the microwave, and then stir in tapioca/corn flour gradually until the paste is super-saturated. I might even try to microwave the paste further. Tapioca flour is easier to deal with. Corn flour imo tastes better.

When the hot flour paste has chilled to a warm state, gradually mix it into the chili paste until desired thickness is achieved.

I have added brandy, rice wine or chardonnay to the chili paste but never beer.

As absorbent thickener, I am even thinking of cream cheese, or home-made sour yogurt on the verge of becoming cottage cheese. I have never tried but perhaps I should one of these days.

Or apple pulp.


What can I do to fix/improve a dry cake? So a lot of times a cake is really dry, whether the recipe author intentionally does that or if I did something wrong I'm not sure (maybe it's how it's meant to be but it doesn't suit my tastes).

What can I do after the cake has been cooked and finished to make it not so dry?

And similarly, what can I do before it's been cooked to make it not so dry? I figure adding butter would help, but I'd rather not add more fat / calories, so I'd prefer an alternative.

No matter what kind of cake you've made, if it turns out too dry, you can moisten it with an appropriately flavored liqueur or syrup. Use a skewer to poke holes every inch and a half or so, then use a pastry brush to paint on the liqueur or syrup getting more into the holes. Coffee syrups come in sugar free varieties if you'd rather not add more sugar.

As far as what is happening, since it is happening with different recipes, I suspect your oven. Is it running hot? Use an oven thermometer to be sure that you are getting the temperature you want. Also, check cakes frequently in the last 10 minutes of baking, using the method recommended in the recipe to gauge the doneness. Usually, the toothpick test works. Stick a toothpick into the cake and remove. If there is no batter on the toothpick (a few moist crumbs are OK), then the cake is done. Cakes that are overdone will always be dry.

The best and easiest way to fix this problem is to put the cake upside down when you get it out of the oven. Let it rest till it's cooled down.


Advice on meat cuts for German rouladen I've been trying to figure out the best cut of beef to use for a German rouladen recipe. From the butcher and Google searches I've seen advice ranging from slicing flank steak (how would that work?) to pounding out a top round steak. (The final slice needs to be about 1/4 of an inch thick and 3+ by 6+ inches long and wide.)

Could someone suggest a cut of meat and a process for arriving at right kind of slice? (I would like to avoid pounding/tenderizing if possible.)

The meat for rouladen is cut from the upper part of the hind legs of the cow, or Oberschale.

You definitely don't pound rouladen; pounded meat tends to re-contract somewhat under heat, and this unacceptable in this case. I don't know how to cut it that way at home. In Germany, the butcher sells the meat pre-cut to the correct size. I guess that he "peels" it from the cut with a sharp knife. As far as I remember, it isn't cut across the grain like steaks. And it has to be very thin, from memory I would say that 1/7 inch thickness is normal. On this site, you can see some close-ups of the raw meat, maybe the butcher can recognize how to cut it from that. (Don't worry about the text, the recipe is far from traditional. I only gave it as a good illustration of the raw cuts).

Also, rouladen are supposed to be tender. If possible, get veal. If not, young bull's meat is better than the normal beef used for steaks.

I think you can use chuck or any other meat that can be 'stewed'.


British equivalent for Cane sugar I have an American recipe that calls for Cane Sugar, is this the same as Demerara or is it Light or Dark brown sugar?

If it only says "cane sugar" without any other qualifier, just use the normal white crystal sugar you have. There is a common attitude that cane sugar is supposedly superior to beet sugar (which is the prevalent sugar in Europe), although this might well be the result of successful advertising campaigns. In any case, if you use beet sugar, I am pretty sure nobody will notice the difference.

If it says something more than just "cane sugar", (e.g. "light brown cane sugar") it could be Demerara or something else. But then your question is not answerable without describing the full term.

See also The difference between beet sugar and cane sugar.

In french, "Sucre de canne" means Light Brown sugar. For the taste, it's not exactly the same as the white sugar, with a light aroma of molasse. So for your recipe you should use Light Brown sugar.


How do I clean these gloves so they do not leave marks? They leave marks on dishes in the pattern of the gloves.
Details

Tried soap, bleach, ammonia, vinegar, scalding water, microfiber cloth.
Only the fingertips leave marks and are sticky.
Palms or back of fingers with the same pattern are not sticky, nor are flat parts.
Brand: Playtex
The marks on glass come off with microfiber cloth and pressure.

Clean rubber gloves can still leave marks. My guess is that the finger pads are more wornout (at microscopic level) and you've reached the not so smooth 'meat' part of the rubber that will stick and rub off on things.

Try with new gloves, or surgical latex gloves, or if marks on glass drive you nuts (like some of us), you can try microfiber gloves over rubber gloves.

We have been having the same problem.  I searched online, and found that it is the gloves wearing down. Probably better off using a different brand.  Check out the reviews that led me to this answer: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3HBPYRGEGLSI7/#R3HBPYRGEGLSI7


Does simple syrup require refrigeration? I'm curious about plain simple syrup and simple syrup with other ingredients. For instance, cardamon simply syrup. Do other ingredients make a difference?

The key factor in syrup's shelf life is the water activity in the syrup, rather than the ingredients used to make it. Generally, the water is all 'bound up' with dissolved sugar so microorganisms can't use it to grow, but the lighter the syrup, the more available water it will have.

In my experience, simple syrup is usually kept refrigerated except for small portions that will be used within a day or two.

For a chart of water activity (aW) of related foods, check here: Water Activity Table

Simple syrup should be used immediately. That which is left over should be poured down the drain. Storing it, even by refrigeration, is asking for trouble. If you don't use that much of it, or don't use it very often; may I suggest that you purchase a bottle of agave syrup and use it instead, storing it in accordance with the instructions on the bottle?


How to safely handle raw milk? I have a couple of questions how to use fresh milk (not pasteurized) coming directly from cow in village (in traditional way, of course).

How long it should be boiled before usage?
Is it better to immediately boil it and store in fridge or store it in fridge and boil before usage?
How long it is can be safely stored in fridge?

Handling raw milk is risky, and please note this information is not professional advice and is not to be taken as an authoritative response.  I will, however, attempt to provide some thoughts on handling raw milk below.

Selling unpasteurized milk is illegal in some countries, and official sources usually discourage the consumption of raw milk instead of offering handling instructions (for good reason).

The FDA has this article on dangers of raw milk.
There are other real dangers such as Brucellosis or Maltese's Fever with which I bouted as an 8-year old.  Think of 107F fever.

Also, keep in mind when you boil the raw milk you are going through a similar process as pasteurization in regards to the theory on breaking down the complex proteins and milk protein allergy.  Probably even more than pasteurization since that occurs at lower temperatures.  Those theories, however, aren't proven (yet) as far as I know, but you do burn some of the sugars in milk if you go above 70C.

The actual answers:

2: It is better to boil first for sure.  Don't store raw milk for lengths of time.
3: Theoretically, if you do everything right and vacuum pack the milk, it might last a couple of weeks, but the longer it stays, the more dangerous it can get.  Freezing might be a better option (we keep our pasteurized milk a couple of months in the freezer).
1: I can't tell you how long to boil it for, though the last time I had fresh milk, it was kept simmering on the burner for about 5 minutes by the folks at the farm.  It was also minutes after it was collected (fresher is better).

one of the safest things you can do if you're going to have raw milk, is to know the source and get it from a farm that takes care of the conditions.  If you know the farm, the farmer, and the cows conditions are safe, you're more likely to be able to enjoy raw milk in peace.

I milk one hundred cows every morning and night with my husband. We only consume raw, unboiled milk. As long as the cows are NOT milked by hand there is no need to boil. The use of stainless steel equipment and milk cooling equipment ensures the milk quality and everyone's safety.
Also, I keep our raw milk in a glass pitcher on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator for three days before replacing.


What are the advantages and disadvantages of various sugars/substitutes? Such as:

Splenda
Artificial Sweeteners
Sugar "In the Raw"
Honey
Stevia
Molasses

Can they be used interchangeably in recipes or do they have to be used at different proportions?Aside from nutritional differences, can I expect drastically different flavors?

I can tell you a few things about artificial sweeteners!

Alot of artificial sweeteners look nothing like sugar (in terms of their chemical makeup) and have very different properties. Most are also sweeter than sugar (sometimes by a factor of hundreds) so in the packets, you will find that they come along with alot of other, inert ingredients.

I found this link for you that lists various artificial sweeteners and their properties. Since most of them are nothing like sugar, you can't do certain things to them: such as heating to high temperatures or for example caramelizing.

The link I gave you mentions which artificial sweeteners are safe for eg. baking and includes some natural subsitutes as well.

I'm not really familiar with their health aspects, but I found this link that discusses health issues with artificial sweeteners.

Hope this is useful to you!

Don't make a drink that is supposed to have sugar without sugar. Unless you're diabetic.


Substitute for margarine in graham cracker crust I have a recipe for cheesecake with a graham cracker crust, and the crust recipe calls for melted margarine.  I'd like to make the recipe without hydrogenated oils/trans fats.

I have butter and a non-hydrogenated oil shortening (palm oil).  Can I substitute one of these for the margarine in the crust recipe?  If not, is there something else that would be a good substitute for margarine here?

Use the butter; historically margarine is a simulated butter in the first place, and you will probably get a better product, since butter tastes much better.

You could use the shortening, but it will not help the flavor at all, and doesn't have the approximately 18% water that butter and margarine do, although this usually doesn't matter in a graham cracker crust.

I think you can exchange it with marscapone cheese at room temperature


Substitute for rooster There's a Greek dish - kokoras krasatos - that I love and want to make for guests, but I can't for the life of me figure out where to find a rooster. Is anyone able to, short of pointing me in the direction of where to get rooster in Atlanta, offer thoughts on what to substitute for rooster in such a recipe? I believe the recipe's method to be a braise.

You can of course use a chicken.  While you won't know if it is a hen or a rooster, it should perform fine in the dish.

As a braised dish, you may do well with an older bird, although these are hard to find in the modern shopping environment.  You might use  a roaster (which will be quite large, but older), or a stewing hen if you can get special order one.

The major difference between hen and a rooster meat is that rooster tends to have less fat and more protein (i.e., it's meatier). Hence, store-bought "chicken" can be either-or.

Braising is a preferred method of cooking "tough"/lean cuts of meat, so Rooster is marginally better in this preparation, but not by much.

Honestly, I'd just ask your local butcher. Depending on where/how he gets his meat/animals, he might know whether he's selling you a hen or rooster.


Imparting flavor to steamed vegetables What flavors, when added to the steaming water can impart its flavor to vegetables being steamed? I know ginger has some water soluble compounds.  What else is similar?

Water solubility isn't enough - that gets the flavour into the water but says nothing about whether the flavour gets to the food. Consider salt as an extreme example.

You may get somewhere by putting the source of flavour on top of the food being cooked. There are recipes that do this with mint for example, though they normally add more mint at the end.

The ginger you mentioned may work in a similar way, but testing is difficult as this approach tends to scent the kitchen or even the whole house, so you perceive the flavour even before the food is served.

Perhaps I can suggest a different cooking method.
I have recently tried and grown fond of frying our veggies. Yes...frying!
Use a medium heat with a nonstick pan and some oil(I use avocado oil). I use a lid for a couple of minutes so the moisture in the veggies helps cook as it becomes steam. The last couple of minutes, I remove the lid and add seasoning. The seasoning can be salt, spices or a combination of. Soya sauce, oyster sauce, worechester sauce  . Whatever you want to try.
Never any veggie leftovers anymore!


How long does parmesan sprinkle cheese last in the refrigerator? My boyfriend says parmesan sprinkle cheese is bad because it has been in the refrigerator for a long time. But I still use it long past it's date and don't seem to have any problems with it. What do you think?

Use-by dates are set as the very minimum time that the product in question will be good for, provided that it is stored properly.

In addition, and as a general rule, because Parmesan is a dry, hard cheese, with very low water content, the use-by date is almost always far shorter than the actual time that the cheese will be good for, again, provided proper storage.

By "parmesan sprinkle cheese", I assume you are referring to the ones that come in a parmesan-wheel shaped box, such as this:

Their shelf life is far longer than their expiry date, and I would not be worried about using it beyond that date. However, for those boxes, most manufacturers tend to use the youngest cheese possible (for Parmesan this means 12 months), meaning it has not had as much time to age (some parmesan is aged for as long as 36 months, and some manufacturers age it for even longer than that), meaning that there isn't much flavor in it.

Personally, I stopped using the boxes a few years back, when I realized that I used far more than I would if I simply used a grater and a piece of parmesan, meaning that it I spend less (if memory serves, I calculated the annual savings to something like 300 Norwegian Kroner/50 US Dollar) on parmesan, getting more, and I think better, flavor from it.

It should be noted that my family uses a LOT of parmesan (depending on how often we have guests, we go through anywhere from 1/4 kg to 1 kg per month), so the savings argument may not hold true for you.

As with honey > Parmesean Cheese (grated, in a Kraft container) > it can last a period of time, well beyond it's stamped date.  First sign of degradation is scent and then discoloration.  Basically Parmsean simply drains the moisture out of whatever dish it's used on.


When a recipe asks to add spices to the oil, can you add the spices directly to the sauce for the same effect? Many chefs add spices to the oil because the "oil brings out the flavors". But I want to experiment with different spices and quantities (which is hard because you can't taste the oil and predict the end result). My question - when a recipe clearly asks for spices in the oil, how can you add the spices to the finished sauce for the same effect?

The effect will be different for a few reasons.

When you add spices to hot oil, they cook at a considerably higher temperature (up to around 200°C) than in a simmering sauce (100°C as it's likely to be mostly water).  Important cooking chemistry happens at this higher temperature, so the flavour is actually changed (just as with onions and garlic).
Whole or coarse spices sometimes pop and break up (I often add whole or lightly crushed cumin seeds to hot oil and fry,  but if you add them after adding watery liquids they get stuck in your teeth).  This can be mitigated by using finely crushed/ground spices.
Even if the oil is cold, many major flavour compounds are much more soluble in oil than water, capsaicin being a significant example.  The flavour extraction will be affected.  Taking chilli flakes as an example, you can add them later, even at the table, but the heat will be concentrated in the flakes; adding them at the beginning of cooking allows the flavour to infuse the whole dish.  Again finer spices can help here by dispersing in the sauce.

On the other hand it's perfectly sensible to add black pepper to a simmering sauce, to taste.  Turmeric is also often added towards the end of cooking as too much cooking removes some of the best elements of the flavour.  Paprika is also sometimes added late (or even to the oil and at the end).

Bearing this in mind, experimenting is a good thing.  If you put a baseline level of spice in the oil, you can get away with topping up the flavour, with a little care.

Fat transport the flavour. It is the one who get infused with the spice or herb. That's why flavoured oils are so popular, you add one thing instead of 2.

Think of making a hot oil. You heat up oil, add spaces and THEN use whole oil in whatever you want.

So adding spices later, to finished sauce may not bring all the taste out. It may be a little bland.

But what you can make is your own flavoured oil. Just use the amount required by the recipe and add different spices with different quantities. When the oil cool down use it in the final recipe.


Carbon steel seasoning I know there's dozen of posts and discussion everywhere, but I'm getting pretty confused. Everyone has something different to say : use rapeseed oil, coconut, olive oil, flaxseed, someone in the oven, someone on the stove..
I found two good videos, made by professional people, but they use a different process to season them:

here and here

The eggs are moving much better in the second video than any of my non stick pans, and I would like to obtain that result, and possible mantain it, without removing the seasoning.

Which one do you recon works better? I also have an electric stove, so it may be better using the oven instead.

My knowledge is never to wash them under the water. Just remove the sticky stuff using a spatula, put some oil to keep them well and if you need use salt and a paper towel to scrub.
I read that someone is deglazing using some water in the process, or scrub them with a a brush under the water (My old chef told me never to do that so.. I'm a bit confused)
I am seeking help from the experts... :)

For any plain steel; carbon steel, cast iron etc, but not stainless or non-stick

Remove previous bad seasonings, or on a new pan remove containments and manufacturing residues

Check the pan surface for any metal protrusions, usually a quick scrape with a hard metal spatula will remove these, if not, consider other methods to remove them. You should be able to run your palm over the surface without cutting yourself

I use a steel scourer pad and some dish soap and scrub it hard and thoroughly. Then heat on a stove or in an oven till it stops smoking. Best to do this outside if you can. Scrub clean again

Polymerise with high temperature oil

Use the highest temp oil you have in kitchen. I don't think it makes any difference which one you use

Apply a light coating and heat until it starts to fully smoke, let it cool a bit, then apply another layer, repeat until you get bored, or the pan is black

Finish by heating a complete layer of salt, until the salt has fully discoloured. The salt will have absorbed the non-polymerised oil from pan surface

When cool, the surface of the pan should be shiny black, and smooth to the touch. Any sticky bits need more work, any metal protrusions need to be removed

After the pan is uses to cook anything, wash it out with water and soap using a brush, oil very lightly, and re-heat until smoke starts
For Soft sticky things like eggs, do the salt treatment again, just before cooking the eggs

I do the same for the cast iron or carbon steel.

Heat up on stove when new or stripped down.
Let it cool to room temp
Apply very thin layer of flaxseed
Place upside down to oven on high.
Do the cycle of coating and baking 3 times.


What's the chemical difference between normal coffee beans and Kopi Luwak? Is there any actual difference in the chemistry or components of a Kopi Luwak coffee bean, and a more traditional coffee bean?  If so, what are those differences?

Actually they recently came up with a reliable test for civet coffee. Apparently a great deal of supposedly authentic stuff never actually traveled through the bowels of a cat.

According to the abstract, the levels of citric acid, malic acid, and the inositol/pyroglutamic acid are so much higher in kopi luwak that their ratios can be used to validate mixes with other beans where the proportion of kopi luwak is 50% or greater.

I think that coffee from the Civet has lower levels of both nutritional chemicals and psychoactive (including caffeine) compared to normal coffee beans, because in the Civet most of it has been digested.


How do I flavor popcorn with a minimal amount of fat? I have a popcorn machine that produces popcorn without using fat. It basically blows hot air over the kernels, and after 2 minutes they start popping.

You're not supposed to add any flavoring agent (salt, sugar, ...) in the machines as it's not made for that. So when I want to add flavor, I spray water onto the popcorn right after it has popped, and then scatter the flavoring agent. This works relatively well.

The downside:

the popcorn can become damp (I solve this by leaving the machine on, which blows hot air over the popcorn)
you can waste some flavoring agent (not all of it sticks to the popcorn, some of it falls on the bottom of the bowl)

The upside:

no fat used, healthier and your fingers will be less "greasy"

Any other ideas how to flavor your popcorn using no fat or a minimal amount of fat?

Don't spray with water with a standard squirt bottle. Get an olive oil spritzer. It's pressurized, so you get an almost aerosol-fine mist, which prevents the kernels from getting soggy. It also adds flavor, in addition to the powdered seasonings you add with it. Or you could use an infused oil and skip the powdered seasoning altogether.

I use brown lunch bags with virgin olive olive oil. It works good and adds flavor.


Is it advisable to season a chicken with salt after having brined it? I've used a standard 5% salt and water solution to brine a chicken, after having brined it is it advisable for me to season the chicken with salt before cooking it? I'm worried that if I do so that the chicken may become too salty; am I wrong in thinking this?

If it is the case that the chicken CAN be salted after brining; what concentrate of brine would be needed so that salting is not necessary after brining? 7%, 10%?

I agree with @rumtscho that you should not need to salt after brining. However, I totally disagree with the accepted answer. There are simply too many reputable sources that say otherwise, not to mention my own experience.

First, please see  the accepted answer to this question   which is from Cook's Illustrated.

Secondly,  this article from Stella Culinary  gives a very detailed description of what brining is and how it works. Please see excerpts below.

  What Is A Brine and Why Should I Use It?

  In its simplest form, brine is a salt and water solution that food products, most commonly meats, are soaked in for a given period of time to improve the product’s overall quality.

  When food is brined correctly, the process yields three major benefits:

  Textural improvement, especially when brining proteins.
  Brines can and will enhance overall flavor. Not only does the salt contained within a brine help to season the food product (assuming the brine is applied correctly), but brines also commonly contain secondary flavor profiles such as herbs, spices and aromatics, that are chosen specifically to enhance the overall flavor of the food product being brined.
  By far the biggest reason food is brined, and that’s moisture retention. Especially when it comes to cooking lean proteins such as chicken breast, pork tenderloin and even fish, brining allows proteins to retain more moisture throughout the cooking process resulting in a moister finished product.

  How Do Brines Work?

  The most conventional explanation of how brining works describes the movement of salt and water into proteins through a process called osmosis. This however is incorrect. Brining actually works through diffusion, not osmosis, and it’s important to make that distinction if we are to truly understand how a brine works.

This is a very good article and gives an in-depth look at brining. I personally use a gradient brine (5%) or dry rub and I can personally attest that the salt does get into the meat.

Myth busters beware, are you ready? Go!

No brining nor seasoning will make your chicken too salty.
5%, 7%, 10%, The only sodium saturating process known to men is the injection, the needle injection, the so called "added solution".

If you're only brining, you're miles away from needle injection consequences, yet another misunderstood process.
Brining is not to be feared, injections is.

Edit (after all these comments/questions showed up):

Brining is a complex subject which I cannot address here, and a lot of myths are floating around, mostly related to nuances, while people do not understand the enormous impact of:

osmosis vs. diffusion,
which ingredient are real actors in brining and which are not, among salt sugar fat acids alcohol herbs/flavors spices/Pungency/[scoville scale]
what happens during passive brining vs. active cooking, including the effects of slow cooking vs. high heat
the type of meat, the thickness of the meat, the duration of the brine/marination.

You can debate this thing for days and years, but what matters here is the question. The assumption is "I marinated (5%) a chicken and now that my marination is over, I'm thinking of seasoning (salt) before cooking. Am I running a risk to saturate the end product with sodium?"

The clear answer is NO, as long as your brine didn't last weeks, or your meat was not previously injected with a sodium solution, e.g 12% or 15%. The only time you have to worry about salt seasoning is when your meat has already been salted with injection, or if you just managed to cook a peace of meat with a higher than 5% salt solution for more than a week, which won't happen unless we are talking about dried cured meat, which is an aberration as I've never seen it.

Please be careful with references to articles, books, so called scientific published papers. You really need to read them slowly and carefully, interpretation is key, understand where they came from, who wrote them, who paid for it, who's getting paid for it, which is the source, ... etc, even if the almighty gods of molecular gastronomy are named on it.

FYI: I've been fighting a few USDA/FDA strict rules for years (e.g. caning, meat temp), while believing their overall work is awesome.


Color bleeding when piping I'm trying to mix color in whipped cream for decorations, but it always bleeds the color down to my white cake coat foundation. Can somebody help?

Make sure your cake fondant isn't too runny.
It might be a good idea to let the fondant on the cake set for a few hours before topping on the whipped cream, in order to harden the foundation to prevent colors from bleeding in.
Here is a thread of comments that focuses on the issue with bleeding colors from whipped cream: Keep Colors From Bleeding?


Is there a super close substitute for graham crackers? I'm from Canada (where there are multitudes of graham crackers!), but I'm currently living in Australia. They do not have anything like graham crackers here, and I could really use them for a couple recipes I'm developing.

Does anyone have a close substitute for graham crackers? I'm looking at making my own, but that seems like a tedious task just to crumble them up again.

First off, try digestive biscuits. They're really very similar cookies/crackers/biscuits, and it's a common enough substitution that it's even mentioned on Wikipedia. Cook's Thesaurus implies that they're called wheatmeal biscuits in Australia.

sourd'oh's suggestion of particularly crunchy gingersnaps might work too, but you'll also want to make sure they're not too spicy!

(Unfortunately, I don't know about specific varieties since I'm not Australian.)

I would look around the local grocer. There are many other graham products like Golden Grahams cereal, Teddy Graham snacks for kids and Annies Graham snacks, found in the organic section. Maybe you can find graham cracker crumbs in the baking section


Binders for skillet rice patties I made rice cakes for my toddler: rice, quinoa, shredded potato, eggs, bread crumbs, cheese  onions, corn and cilantro.

If I wanted them to hold together better would it be advisable to add water or egg? To avoid an eggy flavor do I use the yolk or whites?

Thanks

You want to use egg whites for binding.

Science notes:

About 1/20,000* eggs has salmonella. For infants & toddlers I would suggest cooking thoroughly or pasteurizing the eggs with sous vide if they won't be fully cooked.

Egg whites comprise water (88%) and protein (11%, mostly albumin). Egg yolks are water (48%), protein (17%), and fat (33%). (There are some other things that make up the full 100% of each.) The yolk makes up about 33% of the egg.

The chalazae (the "gross" stringy parts of the egg white that holds the yolk away from the shell) is made from the same protein as the rest of the white. It may look weird but it tastes exactly the same.

*this is the number estimated by the CDC.


Split pea soup won't soften. Any way to soften the peas without burning? I am trying to make split pea soup.  The first time I did it the peas softened just fine but the soup was scorched.  I am trying again but at a lower heat, and the peas are refusing to soften.

Ingredients are 1 bag each of split peas, frozen carrots, and frozen onions, plus a small amount of Spike seasoning.

How can I soften the peas without scorching the soup?  Is a slow cooker the best option?

Starting with more water than you think you need, keeping the lid on for a bit and then stirring a lot while it reduces to the desired consistency should be all you need to do. Don't go far from it once it starts to thicken because it will need too much stirring.

You can cook split peas in a slow cooker, but I haven't found the softening very reliable. A fast boil before you start might help.

I have cooked pea soup many times, and normally the peas soften.  Bought a bag of split peas identified as Chana Dal (brand is Heer). Soaked for a day and half.  Then cooked for 8 hours!  still crunchy.  I have heard that not all split peas are created equal.  Will return to my old brand in future.


Salmon nigiri sushi feels like melting in the mouth. How to achieve that? I am trying to make sushi at home and I'm buying fresh salmon from Whole Foods. The sushi tastes good, but it's missing something. The salmon feels too "fishy" and solid. If one eats at a good sushi restaurant, the salmon nigiri feels like it melts in one's mouth and I can't manage to do it like this.

So far, I have tried:
1. To cut the salmon in thin pieces - the same result.
2. To cut it parallel to the skin and perpendicular to it - same result
3. To change from farmed to wild salmon - same result

I don't understand how to prepare the salmon to make it feel like it's melting when you eat it. Anyone has any experience with this and would like to share with me? Ia there a special way to prepare it or it is the salmon type?

P.S. The next step is to let it warm to room temperature because so far it was taken out from the fridge.

A technique, sushi chefs use is called dry curing. It means covering the fish in sugar and salt (3:1 ratio), I’ve seen recipes calling for 20 minutes to 1.5 hours. This will draw moistrure out, concentrating the taste, and will definitely have an effecf on the texture.

Another one is, freezing for bacterial reduction, try looking for fish that has been frozen at really low temperatures. When frozen, water in the muscle tissue will freeze and expand, damaging the muscle fibers, which will also contribute to the texture you’re looking for. You can try replicating this at home, except for the food-safety part, by freezing the fish for a long time, some recipes call 3-4 days.

First of all type of salmon. Second, cure the salmon as salt can "denature" protein.


Removing Salsa flavor from vegetable soup I was making homemade vegetable soup. I had used 2 pint jars of home-canned tomatoes then accidentally added a jar of home made salsa. My daughter hates salsa so what can I do to take away some of the salsa taste. I don't like how it tastes right now either and it also has too much salt. Any idea what I can do now to fix my mistake?

First off, you may want to consider starting over. You have 2 big problems, and you could end up spending a great deal of time (and ingredients) trying to fix it and end up with something twice as big and just as unpalatable.

If you really want to do it the salsa part is easy: cook it. What many people don't like about salsa is raw flavors, they will mellow quite a bit with the application of heat. If you don't tell your daughter then chances are she won't even know!

The real problem is the salt, once you add it there's no sure-fire way to get it out. If something is very salty the only thing you can do is add ingredients that aren't salty in order to even out the salty flavor. You could make another vegetable soup with no salt and then mix the two, or add some water to your soup and see if that fixes it.

If it isn't too salty I have had some success using potato to absorb some of the salt. Potatoes are good at soaking up salt flavors, you can add some cup up potatoes in and once they are cooked take them out and some of the salt comes with them. Or if you find that the combination works leave them in.

So what I would do is if it's not too far gone would be to add some unsalted stock or water, and then some cut up potatoes. Cook it until the potatoes are tender, then taste. If it's acceptable then serve it with a smile, if not throw it away and chalk it up to experience.

I am going to get told off for this answer because I have no references for it and being on my phone it will take me a while to find a reliable source but here goes.

To take away the salty taste just add sugar. This isn't just a 'salty and sweet flavours are opposite' reasoning but there is science behind it. The salt and sugar binds together to form different taste molecules which reduces the salty flavour. Like I said, I don't have a link to evidence this but it is something I have been doing for years and have been told by a reliable source that this is the why it works.


How do I separate two fish fillets that have been frozen together? Sometimes when I get frozen fish, it comes with several pieces frozen together (specifically, Trader Joe's does this with all of their frozen fish).

Is there any good way of separating them without fully thawing?

This could also apply to other frozen things, but I'm mainly interested in fish.

If the pieces are only frozen together in a few places, you might want to try heating a butter knife up under hot water and then using that to pry them apart. This is similar to heating up an ice cream scoop. It won't work if they are really packed in together tightly though.

through them hard down on a concrete surface and  they should shatter apart. Select the ones you want and put theh other back re-wrapped into the freezer. Aussie solutions are best.


How can I bake normally fried foods? A lot of frozen, convenience foods are foods that are traditionally fried can be prepared by baking.
I'm thinking of, fish sticks, french fries, tator tots, jalapeño poppers, etc.

I'm lousy at deep frying. I don't want to buy a fryer because I don't do it enough to make an expensive bulky appliance worthwhile. When frying in a pan I don't like monitoring the temperature of my oil. My food, therefore, comes out much more oily than it should. I also don't like cleaning and storing a gallon of frying oil.

I know that these foods are different when baked rather than fried. However, my homemade french fries are much worse baked than commercial versions.

How can I make jalapeño poppers at home that can be baked like commercial frozen products?

I would recommend borrowing from the principles found in this post, which details how to "fry" chicken in a kettle grill: Kettle Fried Chicken.

Two key takeaways here: 1) high heat, and 2) all (or nearly all) your food's surface area is exposed to heated air.  You'll just replace "kettle" with "oven," and put something under the rack on which you're cooking your food to catch the stuff that drips away from it, and you should be good to go.  It may require some experimentation to find the right mix of time and temperature for the food item you wish to cook, but it shouldn't take more than a few attempts to get it right, if not the first one.

A lot of convenience foods have instructions for baking or grilling instead of frying. Even potato wedges. Maybe you can look at the packaging on different brands to get an idea of what's possible?