Is there a vegetarian gelatin substitute that is as strong as gelatin? I've made several mold (shaped) desserts with both gelatin and gelatin substitutes, and the substitutes have always failed to hold the shape of fully domed chocolate molds and the like.  Are there any real vegetarian substitutes here, or only relatively weak alternatives?

The primary subsitite I've used is agar-agar.  Some others are suggested here, but I have no experience with them.  (A good comment below suggests that is not the best link b/c all the non-agar substitutes listed at this link are just thickeners.

This depends on what you mean by a gelatin "substitute".

What you have to understand is that while most hydrocolloids have gelling and stabilizing properties, they are not simply interchangeable.  You can't substitute one of them 1-for-1 where you need gelatin and expect everything to just work.

A great place to start would be the Hydrocolloid Recipe Collection which, despite its name, is almost more of a cookbook, because it has detailed information on the properties of each hydrocolloid.

Agar is actually a stronger gelling agent than gelatin in the sense of having to use less of it to get the same strength, but you need to use it properly.  The most important property of agar is that unlike gelatin, which gives hydration at temperatures as low as 50° C, agar requires a temperature of 90° C.  In other words, you need to heat the water all the way to a rapid boil before the agar will actually "activate".  A light simmer is not enough.

The other notable property of agar is syneresis, which is the loss of moisture over time.  Agar sets extremely fast compared to gelatin and above room temperature, but unless you combine it with a small amount of Locust bean gum, it will actually dry out.  Otherwise, though, you can absolutely, definitely substitute agar-agar for gelatin if you actually get pure agar (I made the mistake of buying the "dessert agar" once, which is not the same thing) and hydrate/set it properly.  In fact, the biggest concern with using agar as a substitute for gelatin is that you might end up with something too stiff, since gelatin produces a much softer gel.

Perhaps the closest hydrocolloid to gelatin in terms of its properties is iota type carrageenan.  Here's a side-by-side comparison of the most important characteristics (this is all taken from the HRC):

Property          | Gelatin   | Carrageenan | Agar
------------------+-----------+-------------+---------
Thermoreversible  | Yes       | Yes         | Yes
Strength          | Soft      | Soft        | Hard
Elasticity        | Elastic   | Elastic     | Brittle
Shear Thinning    | No        | Yes         | No
Hydration         | 50° C     | 70° C       | 90° C
Setting Temp.     | 15° C     | 40-70° C    | 35-45° C
Setting Speed     | Slow      | Fast        | Fast
Melting Temp.     | 25-40° C  | 45-80° C*   | 80-90° C
Viscosity         | Low       | Medium      | Low
Gelling Conc.     | 0.6-1.7%  | 1.0-1.5%    | 0.2%
Syneresis         | No        | No          | Yes

You should be able to see by this how much closer carrageenan is to gelatin; trouble is, it's difficult to find, and you have to get the right kind (the kappa type and other types have very different properties).

There's actually an even better type of carrageenan to use a gelatin substitute, if you can find it: It's called Ceambloom 3240 and it's specifically designed to be a gelatin replacement.

I'd like to also note for the record that the answer in your ochef link is not really appropriate for gelatin desserts that need to hold their shape.  Xanthan gum is a fantastic and versatile hydrocolloid but (to the best of my knowledge) it does not "set" the way that gelatin, agar, or carrageenan do.  It's more of a thickener/emulsifier/stabilizer, at its highest concentrations being used to produce foams (but not gels).  It's often used to stabilize other gels/foams but I've never heard of it being used to create a gel on its own.

Guar gum is also largely just a thickener, that you could use a stabler replacement for corn starch or arrowroot, which is also mentioned in that answer.  None of these are appropriate at all for gels (desserts), they are only useful as thickeners.

Try using irish moss. I recommend you to search gelatin substitutes in google and find what is best for you.

Here are other suggestions for u;.japanese arrowroot,guar gum, xathan gum, and guar bean


How to decide the baking temperature when recipe doesn't mention it? On what factors does the temperature setting depend?

Of course if I have to bake a stone, I would need to set the temperature at 900C perhaps :rolleyes: ;), but in normal cakes where you have a banana or an orange as an extra ingredient, how do you decide the temperature?

Example: How much temperature difference can there be in a plain cake and a banana cake?

If you bake a banana cake on 200C instead of 180C, is that going to make a difference somewhere? In which way?

Cooking temperature and time are determined by a number of factors. The idea is to get the inside of the product properly cooked before the outside dries out, becomes tough, or becomes unpleasantly dark or even burned. At the same time, you usually want the product to get nicely browned (adds flavor and looks nice) before the inside is overcooked. So it's a balance.

Factors which influence appropriate temperature and time include:

ingredients: High protein ingredients (like meat or eggs) easily become tough when overcooked. High sugar or starch recipes will tend to brown or burn more easily.
moisture level: For some products, such as popovers or many kinds of pastry, steam is an important leavening agent, and a high temperature is called for. In other products, like cookies, one of the goals of baking is to drive off excess moisture. And in still others, moisture is absorbed into the other ingredients.
shape: A fat, round loaf will usually need a longer cooking time and lower temperature than a thin, flat pizza or a long, skinny baguette because it takes longer for the center of the loaf to heat up.
pH: Changing the pH of the product will change how it browns.
leavening: Some chemical leavening, like double-acting baking powder, activates at a certain temperature.
personal preference: At the end of the day, the most important factor is whether you like the way the product turned out. If you like a crispier crust, change the temperature and/or cooking time to suit your taste.

Any baking recipe should specify the temperature and cooking time, unless perhaps it's from a book that specifies those things for a number of recipes at once. If not, find a similar recipe and use the temperature specified there, but keep a close eye on the product during the baking process. Learn how to tell when the product is done. For cakes, you usually go by color for the outside, and by temperature or using a toothpick or wooden skewer for the inside. (Briefly: poke a wooden toothpick into the center of a cake; if it comes out with wet batter, keep cooking; if it comes out clean and dry, it's probably overcooked; if it comes out with a few crumbs stuck to it, it's probably perfect.)

Stick it at 180 and see how it goes, equations and set recipes don't really work when you're doing the rest of your cooking by eye.


Smelly chicken - is it unsafe? I have a fresh raw chicken breast that has been in the fridge covered for a few days (still in date) that doesn't smell 'normal'. It doesn't smell terrible but it had some clear bubbles/dots on it that wiped away when I touched them with my finger which I haven't seen before, and I'm not used to having a smelly breast so to speak.

I've never smelled bad chicken before so I'm not sure what to look for. Obviously if the meat is spoiled I won't cook it.

Are the smell and bubbles/dots a sign it's become unsafe, or something normal and safe? I've had breasts in the fridge for longer that haven't gone bad.

Not trying to be flippant, but to me it is easiest to apply and old kitchen rhyme to meat:  "When in doubt, throw it out."

Chicken is notoriously prone to spoilage.  Having suffered from food poisoning more than once, for me it is a zero tolerance.  Unusual smells on raw poultry, unexpected discolorations and such make it not for my consumption.  The dots, well, I would have to see them because they could be any number of things from congealed fats to fungus.  Without personal evaluation it is an unknown to me, and unknowns are potential danger in food, especially raw meat.

AS a batchelor I have had the same problem with chicken breasts left in the fridge due to not being able to consume all at once when opened. They go smelly and slimey but if washed very thoroughly under a running cold tap and then cooked through they won't do you any harm. It's best to use what you want and then wash and freeze the remainder. (Wash the plastic container as well). In any event eat it within about five days max.


How do I keep brisket moist overnight? I will be smoking a brisket on Christmas Eve for 6 to 8 hours, and then completing the cooking of in the oven on Christmas day. I want to keep it moist, avoiding the risk of congealing from overnight refrigeration (releasing liquid then not reabsorbing it).

A friend of mine who is a gourmet cook recommended that it simply be doubled wrapped in foil and left at room temperature overnight, instead of refrigerating. While it would sure solve the problem of keeping the brisket moist, I have concerns about the safety in doing this.

Would that be safe? If not, how can I keep the brisket how I want it?

Smoking a brisket until it hits around 160F and then finishing it in the oven is a common way to cook brisket. Meat doesn't benefit much from further smoking after it hits 160F or so, and the oven is much less finicky than a grill or meat smoker. For reference, here is a good description of smoking brisket in a charcoal smoker and then finishing in the oven.

When it's time to take the meat out of the smoker, normal practice is to wrap it thoroughly in foil and then move it to the oven right away. Once the meat hits the final temperature (205F or so), you can hold it for hours before serving it, as long as you keep it warm. So, what you want to do is to stretch out the oven portion of the process so that you can go to sleep.

I'd do something like this:

Smoke the brisket to an internal temperature of 160F or so.
Wrap it thoroughly in heavy-duty foil. You want to prevent any liquid from being able to leak out.
Transfer the roast to an oven set to 225F or even 210F-215F if the oven will go that low.
Go to sleep.

With the oven set so low, the meat will take a long time to reach its final temperature. This is a good thing because brisket benefits from being cooked low & slow. And in the worst case, the meat won't be able to get any hotter than the oven temperature.

The next morning, you can check the meat temperature and make any final adjustments. If the meat isn't cooking fast enough, you can turn up the oven. Once the meat reaches temperature, you have a couple of options:

Remove the roast from the oven, and (leaving it in foil) wrap it in towels and put it into a small insulated cooler. It will lose very little heat this way, and it'll have even more time for collagen to melt.
Turn the oven down to its "keep warm setting" (hopefully 170F-180F) and hold the meat that way.

However you keep it warm, pull it out at some point to let the meat get proper resting period. When you finally open that foil, you'll probably find the meat is resting in a pool of wonderful smokey beefy smelling liquid. You can pour that back over the sliced meat, or incorporate it into a finishing sauce of some kind.

I've let Brisket rest for up to 5hrs with it wrapped in a cooler with towels.. Still too hot to handle with bare hands and super tender and moist. No bacteria growth ect.. Best brisket I ever made and I pulled at 203.We alive so there's that lol


How to keep my (deep frying) oil usable as long as possible? I have a new deep fryer. I am pleased with its results so far. I am not a 'heavy user' though - say once every 2-3 weeks. I want to re-use the oil a couple of times. The deep fryer is covered but not airtight, however.

The new deep fryer has a cold zone, which means the oil won't become dirty due to particles over-frying. I don't overheat the oil either. So, in principle, I'm frying correctly, I think.

So, how long can my oil safely sit in the deep fryer, if I ensure it's thouroughly heated next time I fry? Should I be allowing the oil to cool and store the fat in (sealed) containers instead, if there's going to be this long a gap between uses?

Edit: yes, I've seen this question and answers: Frying Oil Reuse

First thing, a cold zone doesn't prevent particulate build up, it just cuts down on the amount that will remain suspended in the oil. You should still filter if you want to keep your oil as long as possible.  You can detect bad oil (meaning rancid) by a few ways, like smoke point or smell.
You should store your oil someplace dark and cool, which could be the inside of your fryer as long as you filter and clean the sides before you stick the oil back in.  Another thing you can do to extend the life of your oil is switch to tallow (beef fat) or rended pigs fat (lard) as saturated fats do last a lot longer than the poly-unsaturated.

Once again, you should lose the oil when the smoke point drops, or if it is to dark, or if it develops any foul odor.  And as I said before, once you use the oil once, you should NOT use it past six months under any circumstances, if you do, you are taking your gastro-intestinal tract into your own hands.

I would think that fresh oil would be best used, as even though the oil may be strained and cooled in fridge, it will still contain some of the cooked substance, and recooking stuff over and over is not healthy.


How to defrost frozen pizza dough quickly? Obviously, best practice for defrosting it to leave the pizza dough on the counter or in the fridge overnight, then let it rise before cooking it. However, I've got company coming tonight, and I forgot to defrost the dough last night. (It's supermarket frozen whole-wheat dough.)

How can I help the dough along? I've read that you can microwave the dough on a low setting to defrost it, but I'm a little uncertain about doing that.

Edit: I'm concerned that using heat to defrost the dough might cook it somewhat, which I don't want.

Related question: Defrosting pizza dough correctly?

If you dough is a disc shape:
When I worked as a pizza cook at a popular fast food pizza place, we would put our dough still frozen into what we called a proofer. It was basically a heated cabinet around 130 F. It would defrost and have it's final rise in there. After that we would stretch to make the pizza. You could probably replicate this by putting your dough into a covered pan in the oven without preheating on "low" or "warm". You would also want to put a bowl of boiling water in there to add steam. Just make sure it doesn't burn or get up to temperature. You may want water or oil in there with it so it doesn't dry out.

If you dough is in a ball:
I do this for other frozen foods, but haven't tried it on dough before.  Put it in a sealed plastic bag and leave it in warm water. I like to leave it with a constant stream of warm water flowing over the object so the water stays warm. The heat should defrost it and the plastic should keep it dry.

I soften my ice cream using the defrost button in the microwave -- 7 to 10 seconds is more than enough. I don't see why it shouldn't work for pizza dough.


How to make crispy French fries? Yesterday I tried making French fries, but they were not crispy.

I heard that if I use 2 spoonfuls of Mobil oil with soybean oil, the fries will be much crispier.

Is that true?

Or is there any way to make them crispy?

Not to take anything away from the answers already existing for this question, but I want to add one more reference:  Kenji Alt's in depth opus on creating the McDonald's style fry at home.

In summary, his method is to:

Blanche the cut potatoes in water lightly acidified with vinegar, to allow them to cook through while the acid keeps the pectin from decomposing and causing the fries to fall apart.
Par-fry the potatoes (first fry).
Optionally (but preferably) freeze the fries at this point, which actually helps develop the crispiness.  Of course this also lets you do almost all of the work in advance.
Finish-fry and serve.

You will note this is a variant on the traditional double-fry method outlined in Kevin Dickerson's answer.

See the linked article for all of the science, the details, and a linked recipe.

Cut the potataos into slices season it with whatever you want then fry them.10-15 Minutes later flip them and do so 2 more times.Take out and put in paper towl and let cool down


Why does my sourdough loaf not get an ear My loaves seem to have good oven spring, I think. I think that because it rises up on the sides and forms an oval sort of shape each time.
My cut often expands but doesn't open up much or form an ear.

Todays partly opened. I dont know if I am doing the cut wrong. Maybe too deep, not deep enough.  I do try and do 45 degree angle.

Does anyone have some advice to improve this please?

with no photo of the crumb it's hard to know whether there's also a proofing issue but irrespectively let me tell you that it's notoriously difficult to get a consistent ear at home unless you bake the bread in some sort of hot enclosure (dutch oven, cast iron pot with lid etc). That is my experience at least. Sure, the cutting makes a difference so as to have a nice ear but the moisture is the main culprit: your oven cooks the outside of the bread too fast before the temperatures reaches the air in the inside, so when the bread expands air is sealed in and doesn't get the spring it can. Cooking in an enclosure keeps the moisture from the bread close to the crust thus keeping it soft for a bit longer which is when the inside gets hot and expands. This whole thing happens the first 5-10' of baking so if you don't get an ear by then, it's game over.
I have been baking sourdough 2ice a week for about three years now, here's a bread that didn't quite open well enough (together with its crumb to show that it's properly proofed and folded)

and here's one that opened beautifully:

their only difference being that the second was baked inside an enamel pot (the baguettes always get an ear cause they are baked on their little baguette baking trays).

Sourdough ear is made by folding and pinching the bread to the shape.
ALso this process is more successful in a dutch oven.
You have to score a diagonal line.
Also steam plays a role in sour dough bread making.


Is there any difference between cheap and expensive vodka? Vodka is supposed to be odorless and flavorless (with the exception of flavored vodkas). So if I switch to a dirt-cheap vodka, can I save some money?

Is there any difference between cheap and expensive vodka?  Are there any reliable studies demonstrating this?

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

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

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

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

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

To summarize our findings,

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

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

THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CHEAP AND EXPENSIVE VODKA!  VODKA IS JUST RUSSIAN MOONSHINE!  Thats all it is but marketing and popularity of Vodka has made it into something greater than it really is.  Vodka snobs will of course disagree with this but whatever to each is own and its your money!


Is it safe to eat sauteed onions left at room temperature? I made a big pot of sauteed onions and garlic (~9 onions and a head and a half of garlic), and forgot to put it away overnight. It was probably off the fire for around 8-10 hours... Is it safe to keep?

(Edit: Does it help that the onions and garlic will all be reheated, as they are going to be frozen in small portions and used to start off soups?)

After being cooked, the onions are much more subject to spoilage than they were whole.

After 2 hours (4 hours at the outside) cumulative at room temperature (well, between 40-140 F/4-60 C), they should be considered tainted and discarded, per standard official advise for perishable foods.

See also:
https://cooking.stackexchange.com/tags/food-safety/info

The big thing with onions is not to smother them like with oil where they can't get oxygen, it is deadly. See Botulism.


Is fresh cod with worms safe to eat? I have recently noticed a rather large amount of small worms in the fresh cod I am buying. I have tried to take them out as much as I can and of course have spoken to my fish supplier about them, but he assures me they are harmless. However, I don't believe my customers would be as assured. Is it okay to serve this fish, taking into account I might miss a worm or two?

Live parasitic worms are to be expected in raw fresh fish, and need to be dealt with in one of three ways:

Cooking: If the fish is thoroughly cooked, the worms will be dead and safe to eat.
Removal/avoidance: A skilled sashimi chef has an eye for parasites, and will either discard contaminated pieces, or remove the parasites.
Freezing: So called "sushi grade" fish is fish that has been frozen at a temperature/duration recommended by the US FDA. That's 7 days at -20°C, or colder for shorter treatments. Note that this is much colder than domestic freezers. It is said to provide a "parasite destruction guarantee".

There may be other ways to neutralise parasites, such as Eskimo-style fermented fish - but these are unlikely to be of use to you.

There is a difference between safety and palatability, though, and your customers might reasonably expect to be served fish without visible parasites.

I pulled a curled up, dead worm out of my cod just this past weekend and still finished my meal.  I read about them and they do not seem to pose a hazard to humans.  They are FISH parasites and highly unlikely to survive in the human stomach for very long. And (not to be TOO gruesome) they've likely been chomped to death already in one's mouth prior to entering your acid-filled stomach.  Anyway, 5 of us ate the cod and nobody had any sort of adverse reaction (and the fish was delicious).


Which torch to buy for finishing sous vide meat? Butane or propane? I have started cooking sous vide and am thinking of buying a torch to finish off the meat. I have seen stores selling little butane torches for creme brulees, but some have claimed they are not hot enough and I should use propane.

On the other hand, some have claimed that propane leaves a flavour in the meat that should be avoided.

Anyone tried both? Anyone uses the little butane torches? What kind of flavour does the propane impart?

I use Propane all the time.  There are several factors as to why:

It is cheap, about 1/4 the price of butane.
It’s more readily available.  You can buy a propane torch at many different stores for very cheap.
The torches typically put out a lot more heat.  I’ve used both propane and butane, mostly for crème brulee, but other food as well.  The butane torches put out such a focused small area of heat, that it would get uneven burning.  Whereas with Propane, they often put out a much larger area of heat, making it easier to caramelize across the surface evenly.

As for the concern of it imparting propane flavor, I have had that happen, once, but I’ve also had that happen with butane.  It’s all about flow control.  If you have the dial turned up too high and it’s spewing out massive amounts of propane, plus hold the flame too close to the food, you MIGHT get then hint of propane.  But if you have the torched dialed in to the proper settings, you really can’t beat the ease and convenience of “energy-efficient clean-burning propane gas”

I have two propane torches. One is the Bernzomatic-type handheld, and the other is a 500,000 BTU weed burner monster that I call "Mr. Flamethrower". I got mine at Harbor Freight for $20, and it connects to a 20lb tank. The flame is adjustable. I use them both.

I agree that the butane torches are too small, but they work fine otherwise and don't seem to add any taste of their own. They're good for small strips of beef for sushi.

My ideal torch would be either alcohol, from an old-fashioned blow torch, or even better a hydrogen flame. Hydrogen flames are very hot and burn so cleanly that the flame is invisible. Controlling an invisible flame might be an issue though.


What is the difference between noodles and pasta? Is pasta just a fancy name for noodle? Or is pasta always an Italian style noodle?
Is all pasta noodles? Or the other way around?

This may be more of a language question than an actual food question...

I think the problem here is that the definitions overlap quite a bit, which is always a good cause for confusion.

Pasta is defined as shaped dough made of Durum wheat and boiled in water. That is the traditional pasta in my opinion.

Noodles are uaully long and thin, and can be made of any starchy material, like rice or even beans.

Basically, things like risoni or even fusilli are pasta, but not noodles.
Spaghetti and fettuccine are both noodles and pasta.
Rice noodles like ramen are noodles but not pasta.

Look folks, let's not confuse this issue. Noodles are pasta and pasta are noodles! All the same.


What can I use as the leaf in dolma? I want to make dolma, but grape-leaves aren't available here. What can I use instead? I would like to stay as close as possible to the original, grape-leaved dolma, in looks, taste and texture.

Here, in Turkey, cabbage dolma is also very popular. I have no clue about cooking, but probably you may need to cook it differently.

I am going to try hops leaves, simply because someone in my neighborhood has hops plants they don't want, and I don't make beer but I see that the leaves look very similar to grape leaves, and the plant is edible.


Pizza crust too hard in home oven, how to make it softer? I got my recipe down pretty much, tested in wood fired oven it worked great. But at home in the oven at 520F (270C), the edge crust is just unbelievably hard. I bake it on pizza stone at the bottom for about 4-5 minutes. Everything works out great except the crust. I tried pulling it out half way to soak with water but it didn't help.

You can try high hydration flour. go to 75 percent hydration dough. It will be harder to handle but will be more fluffy. Another thing, heat your oven as high temp as possible. use around 2% yeast as well.

i think your dough temp is lower than it should be.to make fluffy dough u should maintain your dough temp.around 40°c.


Do I need to season a stainless steel saute pan? Okay, I received a nice stainless steel saute pan for Christmas and in looking around online there are people that say I need to season it. Most of the techniques I've seen involve oil and salt and cooking that for a bit and then wiping it out. Is this necessary? Do I need to do it every time I use the pan? Are there other techniques that you folks use? I had never heard  of this for stainless steel, but I want to make sure I'm taking care of the pan correctly.

Thanks.

I've never heard of doing anything other than giving it a good cleaning, as you would with any new item before first use.

I've only heard of seasoning used for cast iron and carbon steel, not for stainless steel.  Looking online, I did find instructions for seasoning stainless steel, but I'd be inclined to look at the paperwork that came with the pan -- if the manufacturer recommends doing something, follow their instructions.  If they don't, just give it a good wash.

Anyone who suggests you should not season a stainless pan clearly has no experience in the professional cooking realm. Seasoning stainless is quite common among professional chefs. Some people think stainless means it should always be clean and shiny. Well, if you want that then there will be some foods you should never prepare in stainless unless you enjoy cleaning and scrubbing.  There are some who think that cooking in seasoned stainless or cast iron is a terrible thing because you don't sterilize the pan each time and you will somehow fall sick as a result of eating on this 'contaminated' cooling surface.  Little do these people know that most of the time they go and eat at almost any restaurant that they are eating food prepared in a seasoned pan or baking dish.   Seasoning stainless is perfectly acceptable and even desired by anyone who takes cooking seriously.


How long will a whole turkey keep in a refrigerator? My daughter bought a fresh, organic, kosher turkey from Trader Joe's last night (her first turkey!), 8 days before she will start cooking it.

The company customer service representative as well as the store manager all reassure us that their turkeys are fine to refrigerate in the coldest part of the refrigerator for as long as 10 days.
The turkey's sell-by date is Nov. 28 - two days after Thanksgiving.  The information on their own food storage guide as well as some other info I have read say that 1 - 2 days is the proper amount of time to store a fresh turkey.
TJ's says that the manner in which they transport their turkeys - at a nearly, but not quite frozen, state extends that time.

As long as she stores it unopened in the coldest, bottom part of her fridge (and turns the temperature down as well), will the turkey survive until Thanksgiving? She plans to brine the turkey a day or two ahead of cooking it also.

Not all turkeys are the same, and personally, I would not risk letting an entire turkey go rancid in the refrigerator.  There is so much you don't know about this turkey:

How was it butchered?  In particular, how long was it sitting on the block and was it packed immediately afterward or left sitting out for a long time?
How quickly was it cooled down to "transporting" temperature after butchering?
Was it transported immediately, or was it stored for a while before transport, and if so, what were those storage conditions?
How specifically was it transported?  What were the environmental conditions, aside from temperature?  Was it exposed to air?  Could it have picked up any other contaminants?
Just how cold was the refrigerator at Trader Joe's?  Are you sure that it's consistently that cold?
What if the turkey was shifted around?  For example, what if some other customer picked it up, tossed it in a shopping cart, then after an hour of shopping decided to put it back?
How did she transport it?  I'm guessing in a non-temperature-controlled trunk?  How long was it in that condition/environment before finally making it into the fridge?
Was the temperature in the fridge turned down as far as it can go long before putting the turkey in there?  If not, how long might it have taken to get down to the desired temperature, especially with a massive slightly-warmed-up turkey in there?
How cold does her refrigerator get?  Is it a new refrigerator?  Are you both certain that it gets as cold as the rep at TJ's is assuming?  Have you actually stuck a thermometer in there to measure the environmental temperature around where the turkey would be stored?

I'm not expecting you to answer any of these; my point is just that there are so many variables, so many things that can go wrong, and the quoted 10-day storage period (as well as the sell-by date) is for storage under ideal conditions.

I've seen turkeys go rancid in the fridge after just 2 days.  I've seen others take longer, but still far less than 10 days to go rancid.  It's an incredibly frustrating and completely avoidable experience.  Just put it in the freezer!  She just needs to make sure she gives it a couple of days to thaw in the fridge, due to the size of the bird.  A half-frozen turkey on Thanksgiving day is almost as useless as a rancid one.

I agree with the fact you cannot depend on the pretreatment of the bird before you purchased it . I also have seen a Turkey go bad in around three days of purchase , not a friendly site or smell lol .Your best turkey is going to be fresh and cooked at once ,If possible. Happy Holiday's


How much gelatine to use instead of xanthan or guar gum in ice cream I bought a Cuisinart ICE-30BC ice cream machine and I am experimenting with it. Some ice cream and gelato recipes ask for xanthan gum.

I can't find any of it in my county, but I read that I can replace it with powdered gelatin.

My question is, if a recipe calls for 3g of xanthan gum, how much gelatin should I use to replace it?? Is it less or more?

Gelatin is fine for a stabilizer it was used a lot in ice cream back in the day. Not sure the percentage to use but using a higher bloom strength could be recommend 200-250. Maybe start off using .005 of mix for a starting point and -+ after that for what you want.

This link suggests to use 1/2 amount of xanthan gum for 1 amount of gelatine

so, 1/2 xanthan = 1 gelatine

so, for 3g xanthan you should be using 6g of gelatine


Why does the broccoli at Chinese take-out restaurants have a crunchier texture than those bought at supermarket and grocery store salad bars? I've been eating at Chinese take-out restaurants lately, mostly to save money and still get a big portion of food.  When I get the beef and broccoli and lo mein, I notice that the broccoli is a lot harder and crunchier, compared to the broccoli that I get from salad bars at the grocery stores and supermarkets (which is considerably softer and more crumbly in texture).  Does this indicate that the broccoli served at Chinese take-out places is of lower quality?  For example, could the crunchy texture indicate that I'm eating genetically-modified broccoli?

(If it matters, I live in New York City.)

Raw broccoli is crunchy, and cooking softens it. Usually it's cooked until somewhat softer but still with a bit of crunchiness or at least firmness.  Most likely the very soft broccoli you describe is just more cooked, probably overcooked by a lot of people's standards.

You can't easily tell that much about the quality of the broccoli at that point; the cooking is going to affect the texture and flavor a lot more than anything else. There's certainly nothing here that suggests anything specific about the broccoli (like GMO).

Also, while it's possible that the crunchy broccoli is actually undercooked, many people do like it relatively crunchy. Your soft "crumbly" broccoli sounds much worse to me, so even in terms of the end result, we can't really say anything about quality, just personal preferences.

I see that you've speculated that the soft, crumbly broccoli is raw. First off, it's extremely easy to tell: the color changes as it's cooked, becoming slightly translucent and shifting to a deeper green, probably slightly less blue and slightly more yellow. Raw broccoli should never be soft, and if it's actually soft and limp then it's very far from fresh. It's also only crumbly in the sense that the teeny darker bits on the top can crumble off. So given that you haven't said it's horrible, it seems more likely that it's (over)cooked and chilled, similar to how you might see chilled roasted peppers or cooked meat in a salad bar.

Take it from someone who is a lifetime user of salad bars and Asian takeout. Salad bars use fresh broccoli which has not been cooked. They tend to use the top florets more than the stems, as this is prettier and more appealing on the salad, and easier to chew than stems.
The stems at salad bars are very truncated, on purpose. They remove them. At Asian restaurants, they have little respect for the vegetable, and it is not natural in Chinese mainland. It is an American addition. They also use the stems. It saves money. I don't eat the stems, only the florets, so I don't usually get broccoli at Asian restaurants.
It is always hard crunchy, due to the stems, and I don't wish to take the time to cut off the florets, which are often chewy and cause me to think "Frozen!" But go to REAL Asian restaurants which don't depend on cheap buffet gargantuan supplies of lesser quality ingredients, and you will be amazed at the difference in quality. I eat broccoli at those Asian restaurants :-)


Why is my baguette type bread coming out almost flat? I bake bread almost every day.  Mostly French baguettes, old stretch and fold every 45 mts. method for 1st proofing, couche for 2nd rise. Make sourdough too.  But my bread loaves, which were coming out very good, but wanted to make better, are now (last two weeks) coming out almost totally flat when out of the oven (oven temp ok).  They actually look nice and fluffy (Too "marshmallowy") after 1.5-2 hrs. proofing on top of counter on tray covered by dry towel.  Used to proof for 1.5 hrs. but the 2 hrs. gave a nicer, puffier (but soft) look.
What happens:

So, when I score the bread, simple center cut, it starts to deflate a little.  I bake it with plenty of steam yet no oven spring, it's FLAT! BUT...the taste is great, only has little crumb but it's NOT DENSE...

What I've tried:

I use plenty of steam with pot in bottom of oven and boiling water, lightly spray the loaves.

I am pre-preparing everything (this is new, could it matter?), including sifting flours (half AP/half bread) the night before, the rest in separate containers.

This bread uses a 24 hr. poolish, which is was checked and it's fine.

QUESTION:

How can I proof for 2nd rise if I can't use my oven, which is being heated?

I have tried keeping it in the oven until last minute, finish proofing on top of counter (cooler temperature) in order to preheat oven for baking the change in temp seams to start to deflate dough.

How can I tell that the dough is ready for baking and proofed enough? (tips!) I tried poking it, but just left a hole in the formed "baguette" shaped loaf which didn't spring back at all.  Felt marshmallowy:(  When ready to bake is it supposed to feel firm or very soft?

Is there a chance I could have OVER-kneaded the dough in my KitchenAid? I mix for 2 min. in speed 1 and up to 7 min. in (varies) speeds 2 and 4. (Recipe calls for 2 min mixing and 3 min. on speed 2) I have been kneading say about 3 min. on 2 and 4 on speed 4.  Then I manually knead for about 10 min. (not too hard).

My house is coolish, 70 degrees, open kitchen.  I can't afford a proofing box.  All other breads proof and bake perfectly well.  None of them use the stand mixer (!) Only this one has given me problems.  I have also tried different recipes, same problem - but it seems to work for everybody else. Please help? Thanks and stay safe!:)

If you haven't changed your recipe then the problem is in your method, and it sounds like you are over proofing. If your bread expands too much in the final rise it gets over-extended and tends to collapse when scored, exactly as you describe. It's easy to 'get greedy' and try to eke out that much more expansion, but it's actually a very common mistake.
Reduce your final rise after shaping and you'll get a better result.  Go for a doubling in size typically, maybe a bit more. It's hard to give a time on that, but typically 1.5 hours is the most I'd give it, I like to still have some visible rising going on when I put it in the oven because part of oven spring comes from the yeast.
If you do over-prove it's not a disaster, just don't score it, then put it into the oven gently.
As for how to proof the dough, you don't need to use the oven, in fact I'd recommend against that unless your house is really cold. 70°f is fine for proofing, it just takes a bit longer than a warm oven, and you often get more flavor and better structure if you don't rush it. One thing I would suggest is not to use a damp towel as the weight of it on a small baguette can hold it down a bit, and the evaporation of water from the towel cools the bread and slows down proofing. Instead proof your bread in a clear plastic bag (clear so you can see through it, no other reason). You blow air into the bag and then clip it, the air will keep the bag from contacting the dough and sticking. The bag will seal in the heat generated from the yeast activity as well as keeping in moisture, preventing it from forming a skin.

My experience making baguettes is that if dough is too sticky it will come out flat.  It should be just a little sticky. Kneading has nothing to do with bubbles or flatness.  Actually, I think if you only knead enough to reduce the size, that’s the best. Letting it rise for over 2 hours can ruin the taste.  That happened once.  I think bacteria got in it or something. Often, I’ll punch it down over 8 hours and it is fine.  If you don’t have time to bake it, put it in fridge.


How can you tell when a roast is done? How can you tell when a roast is done?  How long should they roast for?

Trying to predict when a roast is done based on time is a very poor method.  Many factors can change how long a particular roast takes to cook to your preference, including:

Size and shape of the roast--generally the thickest dimension primarily affects how long it takes
Initial temperature of the roast
What temperature you cook it at
The doneness you are aiming for (most important for beef or lamb)

Furthermore, there are two types of cooking commonly called roasts:  pot roasts, which are a more properly a braised dish, and regular roasts.   Finally, while not always called roasting, some oven cooked meats which are cooked for a very long time at low temperatures are in fact more similar in their chemistry to braising than to higher temperature roasting.

Short Answer

For braised dishes and low-and-slow barbecue type roasting, you can tell when the cooking is done because the meat is fall-off-the-bone tender.

For all other roasts, the best way to know it is done is to take the internal temperature with a probe or instant read thermometer.

The time guideline in recipes is to help you plan your cooking day logistics, and so that you know approximately how long to wait before checking for doneness.  As in all but a few forms of cooking, the recipe times are not the final arbiter.

Pot Roasts and Braising

Pot roasts are cooked with liquid in the roasting pan, typically coming up about 1/3 to 1/2 the height of the meat.   This is actually a type of braising, despite sometimes being called a roast dish, and is suitable for tougher cuts of meat like beef chuck, turkey thighs, or leg of lamb.

This is a moist cooking method intended to bring the temperature up high enough, long enough to convert the tough connective tissue to succulent gelatin.

These dishes are always well done.   You know they are finished when the meat comes off the bone easily, and (when appropriate) shreds with little effort.

These dishes often braise for 45-60 minutes for dark meat poultry, or for 2-3 hours (or even more) for pork, beef, lamb, goat, and so on.

Low and Slow Roasting

Low and slow roasting, done with oven temperatures of approximately 250-300 F (120-150 C) on tougher meats--typically pork shoulder, beef chuck, brisket, and so on--has the same purpose as braising:  it slowly converts the collagen to gelatin to create an unctuous dish.  The difference is this roasting is done dry, not in liquid.

The test for doneness is also the same:  when the meat comes off the bone easily, and shreds with little effort.  The internal temperature will be at least about 180 F (82 C) and as high as 205 F (96 C)  but this is not the primary indicator in low-and-slow.

The time to roast is very sensitive to the thickness of the cut, and the temperature at which the roasting is done.  The roasting times can be very long, as the heat transfer is not as effective as with braising, up to 12 hours and even more depending on the item.

Regular Roasting

The remainder of this answer will concentrate on regular, high temperature roasting (as opposed to low-and-slow).  In general the temperature will be at least 300 F (150 C), but usually 350 F (180 C) or higher.

In regular roasting, there may be a searing period of very high heat at the beginning or end of the roasting period to help brown and crisp the exterior of the cut.

The main indicator for when meat is done roasting is temperature.   This is because the highest temperature achieved in the meat indicates how well it is cooked.

How to Measure

To measure the temperature of the roast, use an instant read or probe type thermometer in the thickest part of the meat.  Try to aim the probe for the center, without touching bone.

For larger roasts, you want to aim for a measured temperature about 5 degrees F (about 2-3 degrees C) below your final target temperature.  This is because the outside of the meat will be much hotter than the inside, and as the roast sits, the temperature will even out, raising the temperature at the center--this is called "carry over cooking."

Some tips:

Take the temperature in several places, and use the lowest one as your result
Leave the thermometer in until the result stops changing--depending on the quality and type of thermometer you have, this could take from 2-10 seconds or so.

What Temperature should I look for?

The temperature you are looking for depends on the type of meat you are cooking.

Red Meat

Red meat, including beef and lamb, can be roasted to different donenesses depending on how you prefer it.

125 F    49 C    Rare
130 F    55 C    Medium-rare
140 F    60 C    Medium
155 F    68 C    Medium-well
165 F    74 C    Very well done

Poultry

Most people expect most poultry to be thoroughly cooked (with the exception of duck breasts).

White meat should be cooked to about 155 F (68 C).  Dark meat should be cooked, depending on your preference to at least 160 F (71 C) to as high as 180 F (82 C).  It is far more resistant to overcooking than is white meat.

Note that duck breast is very unique among common types of poultry, in that it is a very heavily worked slow-twitch muscle:  it is in fact, dark meat.  Many people prefer it cooked medium rare or so.   You can use the beef temperature chart above for duck breast.

Pork

Historically, especially in the US, pork has been cooked extremely well done because it was very fatty (which helps it seem moist), and to ensure it was cooked enough to prevent any food-born illness.

With leaner pork on the market, and far, far less risk of food born illness, it is becoming common to roast pork to lower temperatures.

It is safe after about 150 F (65 C), but many people find it more to their preference roasted to 155 or 160 F (68-72 C).

For more information, see:

What makes a moist steak (or roast)?

I have read a lot of answers, but not one answered if your roast was in a roasting bag. For any beef with 2lbs of carrots and 2lbs of cut potatoes, the recipe is 18 to 22 minutes per pound of roast with everything in the bag at 375 degrees. If you have a 2lb roast with 1lb of carrots,1 lb of potatoes, then give it 1 hr and 30 minutes. 3lb of roast 1hr to 2 hrs depending on your oven. That's all if the internal temp is over 180 your good to live another day, and the kids are ok!


Why Did the Duchess Potato Collapse? Thanks for the view. I wanted to make this (recipie):

Got this far (not quite as in the picture but OK for a test, didn't have the right size piping nozzle ):

And then when I put them in the oven they completely melted going down to a depth of about 10mm, here is a picture of a remnant:

In terms of supporting information my skill level is home cook, quite happy making a huge mess in the kitchen to get a delicious meal for four together in about 2 hrs that gets compliments such as that was better than I expected.
As far as the recipe goes I boiled the potatoes until they were easily pierced by a knife, returned to the stove to evaporate moisture, used a potato rinser, added the butter (recipe called for one cup for a kilo of potatoes), seasoned and stirred it together. I went a bit off the recipe by simmering fresh cream and sliced truffle instead of using heavy cream as it was what I had to hand. The mashed potato tasted great and was properly cooked, nothing seemed wrong at this point.
I then produced the examples seen above in the second photo and placed these in the fridge overnight before expecting to put them in the oven (220 Celsius / 428 Fahrenheit, 20 mins) the next day and have them come out the same shape but cooked, this did not happen.
I've no idea what sort of potatoes I used but I did specifically say to the lady in the shop that these would be used for mashed potatoes (located in Spain if this has any bearing) and she told me which ones were best. As such I'm pretty sure I didn't use the wrong potatoes and didn't miss any ingredients that would naturally explain why the potatoes melted down to a thin layer (baking soda [probably not], yeast [never heard of yeast in mashed potato]) I'm pretty sure I've made an error so rookie it just doesn't occur to me.
I would like to know why the potatoes became completely flat and how to prevent this in the future please.

Here is the recipe I followed as suggested in the comments:
1 Boil the potatoes: Place potatoes in a medium to large pot (3 qt) and cover with a couple inches of cold water. Add a couple teaspoons of salt to the water. Bring to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are tender (the tines of a fork easily pierce), about 20-25 minutes.
Did this
2 Melt butter, preheat oven: While the potatoes are boiling, melt 2 tablespoons of butter and set aside. You will use this butter to coat the potatoes right before they go in the oven. Preheat the oven to 425°.
Didn't do this, I brushed with olive oil, cold the next morning
3 Drain potatoes and let them release steam: When the potatoes are cooked, drain in a colander and put the potatoes back in the pot set over low heat. Allow them to release steam for a minute or so.
Did this but right after the potatoes were boiled
4 Mash with butter, then with spices and cream, then with salt and egg yolks: Add 2 tablespoons of butter and mash the potatoes until the butter has been incorporated. Add the nutmeg, black pepper, heavy cream and continue mashing the potatoes.
Didn't do this at all, instead I simmered sliced truffle and fresh cream for about 20 mins and stirred it in to the mash
5 Pipe onto a baking sheet, brush with melted butter: Using a piping bag with a large star point, pipe the potatoes onto a cookie sheet. Alternatively, you can just fill a casserole dish with the mashed potatoes, and use a fork to create lots of peaks on the surface.
Did this but used olive oil, not melted butter, piping nozzle was very small (8mm, star shape)
6 Bake: Bake in the 425°F oven until nicely browned, about 20 minutes.
Did this after leaving the finished piped potatoes in an oven dish in the fridge wrapped in cling film overnight

Substituting olive oil for butter may have been part of the problem. Olive oil is considerably thinner. "Fresh cream" may also have been problem, since (depending on country) things labeled as "cream" may contain significantly more moisture than heavy cream.
I don't think that letting the potatoes sit overnight would have been a problem. In fact, I would suspect it would work in your favor. But the big, heavy, cold glass dish would really work against you. The way these things are meant to "work" is that the surface rapidly dries and gels, keeping the shape while the heat spreads to the inside. In a metal dish, the bottoms would have heated and dried first, because the large area of the dish would have conducted heat to them. But your refrigerated glass dish would have held down the temperature on the bottom of the potatoes for much of the cooking process, as the mixture heated and thinned.
EDIT: I also see in comments that you left out the egg yolks. Don’t do that. They’re necessary.

A Piping Gun works much better than a Piping Bag.
A piping bag will probably not be able to handle the pressure required to push the potatoes out onto the baking sheet.
Definitely worth investing in one!


My dough won't rise the second time I am trying to make dill rolls and I am following the recipe but cut it in half. Instead of margarine I used butter and vegetable oil. Those were the only changes I made. I also used the kitchen aide dough mixer and mixed it for about 3-5 minutes. I let it rise and it doubled in size, but for the second rise my dough went flat. It never rises again. It also would not brown and did not taste good at all. What am I doing wrong? I'm at normal altitude. I have included the link for the website.

http://monasterykitchen.org/savory-dill-rolls/

I can't say what you did wrong or if it was the yeast at fault as suggested as we can only go by your results. I'm not so sure the yeast would be faulty though since you said it doubled in the first rising.

They look like they 'sort of' rose but more sideways since they're melded against one another. Or did you put them touching each other to begin with? The baked buns in the link have a wide spaces between them so if you spaced them that way, the did rise but not properly.

If you left spaces between them and they spread out when rising but didn't hold their shape, how soft was your dough? Softer dough with higher hydration don't rise high and keep their shape as well as lower hydration doughs.

If that doesn't fit your dough, is it possible that the temperature used in your first rising was too warm? A couple of times when I was trying to hurry the process (even though I know better), I've subjected the dough to too much heat. It rose quickly and doubled in bulk but most of the yeast was killed. The second rising didn't go well with most of the yeast dead. Is it possible you did something similar?

Sorry to ask questions instead of giving a concrete answer but all we can do, from our end, is guess and hope something fits. Looking carefully at your photo, there are air pockets like bread should have but with a mix of small and big spaces like dough with high hydration has. The surface of the buns are uneven too. When you shaped the buns for the second rising, we're they rounded and smooth like the unbaked buns in the link?

Hopefully if you provide more information, others may see other possible reasons.

It is hard to say based on your minimal description. Please give a detailed step by step description of your process.

Kitchenaid mixers are great all around machines but they are not great at bread mixing. I always finish my dough's by hand on the counter to avoid long mixing times overheating the dough. 3 to 5 minutes in a kitchenaid is not enough to get proper gluten development in my experience. Once you have finished  kneading the dough on the counter you then need to place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl for the the "first rise", you want it rise but not to much as you can exhaust the yeast ( it appears to me that you have a dough that was not fully developed AND you let it go to far on your "first rise".)

You let it rise in the bowl close to but not until doubled, you want to be able to poke your finger into the dough and have it spring back some but not to much or to fast and if it seams to collapse and not spring then it has gone to far. You then fold the dough ( punch down ) and turn it and let it rise to the same point again.

Now you are ready to turn it out onto your bench (counter) and  weight it ( divide it) into the loaves or roll sizes you need, cover it and let relax for about ten minutes and then form into loaves. You let it rise until it is ready to bake, again you use the finger test as you do not want to let it go to far. This is a slightly different feel then your first rise. testing the dough's spring is an acquired skill and you will get a feel for it ( pun intended ) the more you bake. I was baking bread as i wrote this, here is a photo.


Why aren't my potatoes cooked? I had a 3lb roast on a bed of baby potatoes (smaller than a ping-pong ball but larger than a grape) and onions at 375F for almost 3 hours. The roast came out great (cooked to 150F internally), but the potatoes are still raw in the middle. Shouldn't they have cooked by then? And what can I do in the future to prevent this?

As per comments: There was also a pizza stone in the oven. Could that have played a factor? It was preheated with the oven, as suggested in Storing Pizza Stone in Oven. The oven was preheated about an hour (my oven doesn't beep, just has a change in light color, so sometimes we forget we were preheating and wander off).

Put the roast on the bottom and the potatoes around the edges. Cover everything with red wine (or whatever fluid you are using)


Is it worth checking beans for stones? I've heard from many sources to check beans for stones before soaking/cooking them.  I've been cooking with beans for years (mostly black beans, chickpeas and lentils), and I've never encountered a stone before or after cooking.  Is the stone thing a myth, or no longer the case with modern agricultural technology?

I've found stones in dried beans, so it's no myth.  Not common, but I'd say I find one every year or two.  If you simply swallowed a small stone, it would almost certainly pass without harm, but as TFD pointed out in his comment, biting down on one could be an expensive and painful dental experience.  What I do is spread the beans out on a kitchen towel in a single layer.  For dark beans, I use a light-colored towel and vice-versa for light beans.  It's very easy to spot any foreign objects that way and it takes less than a minute, so it's worth doing in my opinion.  You can then easily toss the beans into a pot by just picking up the four corners of the towel and dumping them in.

I should add that I've found little balls of dried dirt far more often than actual stones.  Those would most likely dissolve and get washed away when you rinsed the beans, but it demonstrates that stones can be in there.

When I make pintos I find no less than 5-6 stones. When I make field peas I don't find anything. What's the difference? Pintos are store bought. Field peas are home grown, hand processed.


Baking cake in one pan instead of splitting into two Lots of red velvet cake recipes (this one I'm looking at https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/red-velvet-layer-cake-with-cream-cheese-frosting/) are asking to split the batter into two cake pans. I've only got one, springform, which I use to bake all cakes.

Would it still work out if I used one cake pan? How should I go about the baking time? I've never really done this before and don't want to mess up so just  wondering. thanks!

That is highly unlikely to work in your case. Summing up all ingredients, I came to 1600 ml. I don't know what exact density cake has, but it is a foam full of air, so being twice as light as water seems plausible, which would make your single layer 3 inches high. And the pictures in the article pretty much agree with my guess, the cake pieces are 1.5 times as long as they are high.

If you try to bake a 3 inch high cake layer, there is basically no time and temperature at which you can get it baked, you will always end up with a raw middle or with dust-dry, if not burnt, outer portions.

If you insist making it a single piece, you may try a bundt pan instead of a cake pan. Alternatively, make half the recipe (assuming that your pan is indeed 9 inch - if it is 28 cm, you can make 2/3 of the recipe to get the same height) or really go with the two layers.

I wish I saw this earlier but I guess this can help anyone that may come across this, but you can bake it in the same pan, just make sure to but a boundary of baking paper around the inner perimeter of the pan in case it bakes taller than the height, and then bake it at a lower temperature so it doesn’t burn before it is completely baked.
The lower temp would make it take longer, for example baking it at 125 Could take about 2 hrs so that's good to keep in mind.


Is it okay to remove oil/grease stains from anodized aluminum pan using vinegar? I bought a brand new hard anodized pan for making roti. I used some oil while cooking. After cooking, washing I saw these stains (most likely grease) that would not be removed after washing with my usual dish washing liquid.

Pan photo

I heated the pan hoping that oil would come off. It didn't.

Then I gently scrubbed vinegar soaked toothbrush on the greasy spot. Some of the grease got removed, (50%) but it remained there in other spots.

Is my cleaning process correct?

Try this approach, as I describe on my blog:

  1) Fill the pot or pan or other aluminium utensil with water.

  2) Add a tablespoon of vinegar or two teaspoons of cream of tartar for every quart of water.

  3) Boil this solution for 10 to 15 minutes and scour the vessel with a soapy steel wool pad.

  4) Rinse and dry.


Spice with no Flavor or Aroma? I lost the label on a bag of some sort of spice, and trying to figure out what it is got me really curious of what it possibly could be and what use it could ever serve.

It is light brown, even slightly tan (reminiscent of natural sugar).
It has a very slight woody smell, with possibly an undertone of heat.
It has no real taste, possibly woody again, and is slightly gritty. It makes me think of ground up bark, if 99% of the flavor was removed.

What spice does not have any flavor or aroma? This seems like an contradiction.

What spice does not have any flavor or aroma?

A stale, old one. The flavors in spices are volatile— they don't last forever.

I was searching for a spice that has no flavor and found this question. If a spice has no flavor, then it probably has no aroma either.  Such a spice would be used for texture or color. I was specifically looking for a spice that only was used for its color.  If I were to make a guess about what you have found was a cinnamon-sugar mix for cinnamon toast. It would explain the graininess from the sugar and the lightness in color.  You mentioned an undertone of heat.  This reminded me of cinnamon candy.  They can mix cassia (Chinese cinnamon aka false cinnamon) with cinnamon and there is no regulation on quantity or percentages for store-bought cinnamon powder.


Is it recommended to rinse the teapot with boiling water before putting the tea leaves in? Is it recommended to rinse the teapot with boiling water, or does that make no difference?

The main reason you put boiling water in the teapot before making tea is to heat up the teapot. You dump out the now cooler water and then add your teabags and more boiling water, and the teapot will now be warm and not leech out the temperature from within it. This results in tastier tea, but is totally not necessary if you didn't make enough hot water, or don't want to spend the time doing so.

Yes, boiling water without pre heating can break porcelain (bone china) teapots and it has happened to me. I sadly lost a grand old Royal Albert cottage rose pot this way through being careless.


Yeast rolls spread when rising I make yeast roll dough in my bread machine, then form them into rolls and let them rise. They are delicious but when rising they seem to spread out and not rise very high. What can I do to make them taller?

Most baked rolls are placed closer together to encourage rising, and limiting horizontal spreading.

Food Lover is quite right, although other issues may be that:

the liquid you used wasn't warm enough (cold inhibits yeast activity; consequently, too-hot liquid will also prevent proper rising)
too much salt was used
too much sugar, or not enough was used
check expiration date on yeast packet


Calibrating a home gas oven We have a new gas oven which is consistently 30-40F low compared to the dial setting (we've checked with two oven thermometers).  While we can get it calibrated as a service call by the manufacturer, I'd love to know how to do it myself.  However, sources I've been able to search out via Google so far have been uninstructive and somewhat untrustworthy (e.g. eHow.com).

The range is a Summit TNM63027BFKWY 24" gas range.

Questions:

Has anyone on SA calibrated their own gas oven?
Is gas oven calibration generally the same for most gas ovens in the USA, or does the method vary widely by manufacturer?
If (1) is yes, and (2) is "mostly consistent", then can someone point me to a good resource on calibrating your own oven, or failing that, describe the steps?

First, you need an accurate thermometer that measures average temperature to adjust an oven. For example, a Proaccurate Oven Thermometer, which works by having an oil-filled chamber to average the temperature.

Normally, you can just pull the temperature dial off—the (usually) plastic piece you turn generally pulls right off the actual thermostat, its held on by friction. A gentle prying may be necessary.

After removing the knob, you'll have one of two types of adjustments:

They'll be two screws on the knob itself (in which case, loosen them both to adjust the temperature, it should be marked as to how much to turn it and in which direction—though, if you stare at it long enough, you can figure it out even if its not marked)
There will be one screw inside the shaft on the thermostat. It may be hard to see the screw (it can be at the very end of the hollow shaft). Turn it using a very small screwdriver.

After adjusting the dial, you should re-measure using the thermometer (and possibly adjust again...)

Appliance411 has pictures.

I realize it's not exactly what you're asking for, but if it's a consistent offset, I'd simply create a little table and post it near the oven:

Desired Temperature   |  Dial Setting
                      |
        100           |       70
        200           |      170
        300           |      270
        400           |      370
        etc.


Hot tea with lemon juice and fat free milk: how to prevent curdling? So I know it may sound a bit weird, but I like milky tea with some lemon juice added. I pop a teabag into the mug, fill it about 2/3 with boiling water, let seep a bit, remove teabag, add some freshly-squeezed lemon, then slowly add cold fat-free milk (and add stevia for sweetness). How can I make myself a cuppa without the milk curdling?

I don't think this is practically possible with lemon juice, as milk protein will curdle in the presence of acid (in this case, citric acid in the lemon juice)—and the process happens much more quickly at hotter temperatures, as in tea.

A pinch of salt may slow the process, but is likely to be unpalatable.

You could neutralize the acid with baking powder, but getting the right balance would be difficult, and again, the result is likely to be disconcerting and unpalatable.

If it is not the acidic balance that you appreciate in your tea, but rather the flavor of the lemon, you might try making a simple syrup with lemon zest, and using that to sweeten your tea.  It will give the lemon flavor, without the acidity, and so not trigger the curdling.

well now, call me barmy, but I actually rather like the milk curds. They're fresh, it's not as if the milk has gone to rot? Isn't that how you make mozzarella cheese?


How can I safely reuse tea? I regularly reuse my tea bags, sometimes over as much as a five hour span.

I am sure that there are limits to the safe re-use of tea, but I can't find any USDA or other authoritative guidance.

What are reasonable precautions I can take to ensure that I am not putting myself at risk for foodborne illness?

Please provide evidence-based answers, not anecdotal reports.  I don't mind if the answers are somewhat speculative based on evidence from analogous food preparations.

The issue here is how long do you steep the tea, at what temperature, and under what conditions do you store the used tea bags? The reason "sun tea" has been discouraged has been because of the likelihood that the tea leaves that are in the bags are contaminated with bacteria such that a long soak in luke-warm water such as that of the "sun tea" causes them to multiply to the extent that they become a serious health risk. Tea leaves are not typically pasteurized during their processing, and may carry viable bacteria and/ or bacterial spores.
If you were to soak the tea bag in warm water not hot enough to get a good bacterial kill initially, there may be enough viable bacteria in the tea leaves to grow during that 5 hour interval such that the next cup may be seriously dangerous (some may divide every 15 minutes, for example). However, if you were to adequately kill the bacteria and spores off by a nice hot soak (for this example, you would need to use a pressure cooker since some bacterial spores are not even killed by boiling water at atmospheric pressure), refrigerate the tea bag afterwards, and then reuse it 5 hours later it would likely be perfectly fine.
I think the final answer to your question comes down to your own personal risk tolerance and the conditions above. If you brew in luke-warm water or for a very brief time and then leave the bags out at room temperature you are just asking for trouble and eventually you may hit the loaded chamber in your own personal Russian roulette game.
For empiric answers, take your particular brewing temperature and time and compare it to the USDA tables for pasteurization. Then, look up the growth curves for the major pathogens at your storage temperature and figure out how many would likely be present after 5 hours (20 generations at 15 minutes per generation or 2^20 times more bacteria than viable after the brewing event at the end of the storage interval).

I would place those used tea bags in the freezer until you are ready to reuse.


How long does it take to warm a ham in the oven? I bought a fully cooked ham.  It was frozen, and it's now thawed.  How long should I put in the oven to warm it up?

Since it's already fully-cooked, you don't need to be all that precise with time or temperature.  The most important thing is to avoid drying it out, so use a roasting pan and add a little water to the bottom (not more than 1 cm) and cover it while it's reheating.

It's best if you have a meat thermometer; toss it in at 300° F / 150° C (or up to 350° F / 175° C if you're in a hurry) and aim for a temperature of about 140° F / 60° C.  If you don't have a thermometer, this about.com page suggests 16-20 minutes per pound; it also suggests heating to 135° F which is also fine.  But if you're not going by a thermometer then you'd better make sure that it's completely thawed first, all the way to the interior, lest you end up with a semi-frozen dinner.

If you also plan to glaze it then apply the glaze after it's been heated and raise the temperature to 400° F (205° C) as the above link suggests.

Good instructions. It is easy to dry the ham out too much when you are heating it (precooked ham). I use a baking pan (with lid) AND wrap it in foil prior to putting it in the pan. A little water in the pan is a MUST. I usually go with 325 for about 18 minutes per pound. The combination of pan with lid plus foil seems like overkill but it insures a nice moist ham.


Can I use fresh okara without cooking it? I started to experiment with home-made soy milk, which means that I have a lot of okara and I am looking for various ways of using it. I grind the soy beans before boiling the milk, so that the okara I get comes from the beans that have just soaked in water overnight and boiled for one or two minutes before grinding. Can I use such okara directly in spreads and other recipes without boiling it or steaming it? Can my body use the proteins and other nutrients?

Its been a while but I found this thread as I was wondering the same thing... Not much info on raw okara but I just googled raw soybeans....

"For human consumption, soybeans must be cooked with "wet" heat to destroy the trypsin inhibitors (serine protease inhibitors). Raw soybeans, including the immature green form, are toxic to humans, swine, chickens, and in fact, all monogastric animals."

From wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soybean

I made my soy milk by soaking 1 cup of beans in hot water for a day and removing the translucent skin. I steamed the soaked soy bean and blended it in my vita mix with 7 cups of water.

Then I strained this and the okara was unbelievably delicious - like almond paste with no bitterness, but nutty and creamy. The milk turned out very delicious and creamy.

I am going to add it in my carrot tomato soup.


Homemade double/heavy cream separates after setting in the fridge Good day. I recently made a homemade double cream using 1.5 cups of whole milk and 150 grams of unsalted butter. I followed most recipes I saw online which started with melting the butter so that it becomes liquid and not letting it boil and mixing it with the milk. However, I had several problems as I placed the melted butter in cold milk which lead to the butter forming again which in turn made it difficult for me to mix with a hand mixer. What I did next was I placed the mixture in a saucepan and let it warm over low heat. When the butter turned liquid again and the milk starting to become warm, I took it off the pan and back to my mixing bowl then used a hand mixer for about two and a half minutes.

When the mixture looked mixed to me, I placed it in a container and placed it in the fridge to set. However, upon returning to it a couple of hours later, the double cream separated, the butter formed at the top part and the milk was at the bottom.

My question is, can I still turn this disaster of a double cream and make it usable for cooking/baking purposes? Or should I toss it to the bin and start on a new one? (and this time make sure that the milk is in room temp before mixing the two components)

You cannot make double cream by mixing milk and butter, this is wishful thinking. Some recipes which call for heavy cream, e.g. a cream soup, can indeed be made by adding milk and butter in such quantities that the fat ratio becomes similar to double cream, and will be successful. But for all such cases, there is no reason to mix the milk and butter before adding them to the other ingredients, you can step the step which supposedly makes cream.

A mixture of butter and milk will always be unstable, no matter the temperature at which you added them. You could in theory avoid it by using an emulsifier and a very thorough mixing method (high powered blenders are good here), but the result will have a different taste and somewhat different texture from cream and still won't whip. I've never seen a use case where doing it makes any sense.

Just get a Bel Cream Maker - (often on Ebay) made in the 50's and 60's.


Why should I cook the flour first when making bechamel sauce? Why should I cook the flour first with butter, instead of just combining all the ingredients until I get the desired consistency when making a bechamel sauce?

This link explains the science behind what is known as "the mother sauce", béchamel.  Essentially, the steps of first creating a roux, then adding cold milk, are about manipulating the glucose chains in the flour.  Done correctly, the sauce is smooth and flavorful.  Done incorrectly and you have a grainy mixture that tastes of raw flour.

@David Richerby's comment below prompted me to investigate further.  So, I turned to Harold McGee's classic, On Food and Cooking.  He writes, on page 617, that:

  in addition to coating flour particles with fat, making them easier to disperse in a hot liquid, roux making has three other useful effects on flour....it cooks out the raw cereal flavor, and develops a round, toasty flavor...second, the color itself...and third, heat causes some of the starch chains to split, and then to form new bonds with each other.

He goes on to explain the importance of this step, but it generally achieves the desired texture and means the sauce is less likely to congeal on the plate.

From Wikipedia's page on starch:

  Starch or amylum is a polymeric carbohydrate consisting of a large number of glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds.

...and, yes, this correlates with gelatinization.

It is important that after "frying" the flour and fat you turn off the heat and add the first liquid (water, stock, milk) slowly while stirring. Later you can add liquid more quickly and turn the heat back on. In common with the other answers: this avoids clumps.

I sometimes make a roux from peanut butter, flour, spices, milk, water. Yummie. Without the extra flour there would be too much peanut oil. Mixing hot oil / fat / butter with the flour first gives you an idea of the right proportions, it has to form an almost-dry ball.


Why should I put a whole onion in the turkey fryer? Happy Thanksgiving! I am getting ready to fry a turkey and the instructions say that I should put a whole onion in with the turkey and oil.

What would be the purpose of this?

Thanks!

Having done this several times in the past - it is to make the oil flavoured. Like the comments have said that one onion doesn't seem to be enough, and frankly it isn't. I typically use 2, and remove the skins as well as score them allowing the juices to weep out a bit. Additionally, I know some people who toss a de-seeded bell pepper or two in as well, and it turns out well.

the onion goes on the bottom so the meat doesn't touch the bottom of the pot and scorch.we used to do this before there were turkey fryers and baskets /stands.(30 years ago).
weused coat hangers wrapped around the legs to lower and raise the bird.maybe there is some flavore enhancement with the onion.


Can i make ice cream with artificial sweetener I wonder if an artificial sweetener like sucralose or erythritol could be used to make a reasonably soft ice cream.

Weeeellll...remember, the sugar in ice cream helps it not form into a solid chunk of ice (as does the fat). Often reduced-sugar recipes call for alcohol, which can help do the same thing. You're really going to need something to keep all those ice crystals from forming.

If you want to play with artificial sweetener, I'd be tempted to suggest going more towards a frozen custard. My first trial for such things would be milk, a sweetener, and cornstarch. Once you have a custard that you're ok with, try running through your ice cream maker. I've tried something similar, but I didn't have an ice cream maker at the time. I ended up with something like a pudding pop. It was still yummy.

I have the same problem. Using sucralose instead of sugar makes it hard.
Custard with lots of vanilla escence and xantham gum helps.


Pasta: is simmering equivalent to roiling boil? I recently got into a surprisingly heated argument with a friend about what level of boil you should cook your pasta at. He (an engineer) argued that the heat transfer would remain the same regardless of the level of the boil and that anything above a simmer would be a waste of energy. I looked at it less from a heat transfer point of view and argued that a higher boil would increase agitation and cause the noodles to stick less to each other.

So what is it? Is a higher boil actually a waste of (a minuscule amount of) energy?

Actually you're all wrong. The twin myths that we must use a rolling boil and abundant water have been rather soundly disproved. Most recently by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt over at seriouseats, an MIT graduate who later became a chef.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/05/how-to-cook-pasta-salt-water-boiling-tips-the-food-lab.html

is the article in question. I have used his method at home with great success. Have not yet been brave enough to try it at work, as chef doesn't much like it when that sort of dogma gets challenged. But that's all it is, dogma.

212F is 212F.  I simmer.  I'm a Development Engineer.  Always solving problems.  Small water to cover pasta and use a lid.  Lid keeps environment moist and boils in 75% of the time.  Stir at the beginning and shake/stir the pasta a bit every few minutes. Use water with much more starch in your sauce.  Yummy.


How long can I let a steak rest after seasoning and before cooking? I read over at Serious eats that when seasoning a steak, you either need to cook it immediately after salting, or after 40 minutes and more.

(To sum up the article, this is due to a process of osmosis that starts after salting, drawing out the liquids, and it takes at least 40 minutes for enough of them to be reabsorbed)

Anyway, they say that after the 40 minute mark, the longer I leave the meat to rest, the better it will come out at the end.

My question is: How long is too long? I imagine that at some point the meat will dehydrate (less likely) or go bad. At which conditions should I leave it and when is the point of no return?

The one problem I see with the article is that they cook the steak "as is" after letting it rest. They even mention that because so much liquid had been pulled out it caused problems with cooking. The missing step is to pat the steak dry. It needs to be dry when going in to the pan. I think the results are slightly skewed because of this - it was dry at the 0 minute mark and at the 40 minute mark but not at the in between marks. Keep in mind that you can wipe off seasonings when patting dry so this is still something to keep in mind.

As for your question - how long to leave it out? As Aaronaught said it doesn't really matter if it's salted or not. How long a steak can sit on the counter and not go bad will depend on the conditions and is more of a food-safety question unrelated to seasoning. You can, as the article mentions, place it in the fridge if you want to let it rest for a long time. Just remember to let it come back to room temperature before cooking for best results.

I'm not sure I really buy in to the importance of water reabsorption in how it relates to taste. The entire process of dry aging is designed to pull moisture out of the meat to give it a more concentrated beef flavor. Again, the article mentions that letting it rest this way for up to a day only results in an ~5% loss by weight, which pales in comparison to the 20%+ loss from cooking.

Now if you want to let it "rest" for a LONG time, like days or weeks you're talking more about a process like dry aging, in which case you'll want to start with a large piece of meat as the outside will need to be cut off as it will get rather dried out and not very appealing to eat. This involves more than just putting meat in the fridge though, so you probably don't want to go too far past 24 hours in the fridge.

I like to leave a steak out at room temperature for three to four days, marinated in wine, coke, garlic and spices of my choice. When I fry it melts like butter in my mouth. When I worked at the cold storage commission we were told that you should leave steaks out at room temp a few days before cooking. As long as it is properly covered and sealed and marinated. It tenderizes naturally by standing out at room temperature.


Hard dry crusts on frozen bread I have always frozen my bread with no noticeable difference. Some fridge freezers seem to impart a stale freezer burn flavor to lots of things, but I've never had that issue. I'm guessing it has to do with the freshness/cleanliness of the freezer, how things are packaged, how long they are frozen, etc.

I'm having suddenly having issues with the crust, sometimes just part of the crust, becoming extremely hard and tough on store-bought sliced bread that is usually frozen no more than 3 weeks.

The only variable that has changed is the style of deep freeze--we just received an upright, self-defrosting freezer, replacing our very old deep chest freezer that was not self-defrosting.  Perhaps the newer one is removing more moisture from the air in the freezer, hence drying the bread.  That makes sense, however, I used to freeze bread in my refrigerator freezer, which is also self-defrosting, with no issues.

I've tested lowering the temp of the freezer, and storing the bread on the shelf instead of in the door. Neither have made a difference.  I'm planning to get a plastic tote with lid thinking that might help reduce drying air exposure.

Perhaps my question is more related to the functionality of this freezer, manufacturer's performance issue, or simply a variability in freezer styles. I just find it odd that after freezing food for 40 years with no issues, this has suddenly become a problem.

The likely culprit, so to speak, is not just the freezer but rather the mill of the bag within which the bread now comes. Any relatively thin sheet of plastic is actually porous at the microscopic level. That's why you can smell right through some of these bags and detect what's in them, or detect the poor or better condition that their contents are in. Who for example cannot identify raisin bread with nothing more than a whiff of the bag? So even the slightest reduction in the mill [of a plastic] can yield an exponential increase in its permeability.

Now it may be, yes, that you noticed this change at or around the time you replaced your freezer. This concomitance is probably not irrelevant. Nonetheless, the marketplace is always looking for ways to cut costs, especially in the United States. And when you think about the sheer number of plastic bags that are involved nationwide for annual bread sales, the slightest change in the mill of the bag equates to some very real dollars.

I noticed quite recently here a change in the packaging of my milk cartons, (half-and-half actually), obvious because of the dramatically different color. But the carton is now so thin you can feel it caving in as you pick it up. I also noticed that the screw-on lid was lighter in weight as well as thinner in its construction, (bendier and more translucent), and that the amount of turn required (and therefore allowed) was reduced. In short, it was a complete overhaul.

Okay, that synchronized cluster of changes didn't just happen for no reason. There are always motivations at play, especially when multiple changes have to be authorized by multiple layers of individuals at multiple levels of responsibility. What were those motivations? Was my grocer's provider (dairy) just feeling generous? Did they mistakenly ascertain that I as a consumer (speaking generally) would pick up this flimsier version of a container and respond in something of a positive manner?

Of course not. They didn't do it for me (us). They did it for themselves (profit). That's the pattern. That's the die that is cast. And that's more probably what accounts, at least in part, for the difference you've noted and shared. In my example, the carton supplier [to the dairy] could increase its profit margin over time and still manage to offer the dairy a slight reduction in cost for, say, every gross of cartons. Not complicated. Everybody wins but the consumer. Same deal for the mill of your plastic.

Certainly I don't mean to force this as an only explanans. The freezer too is bound to play an important role as follows. You did say it's a newer model frost-free, meaning newer than the frost-free you said you had before. On that note alone, here's what seems a likely scenario.

A frost-free works, obviously, by drawing not only the heat but the moisture out of the freezer. It does so nearly constantly, and on a very low level. That's all that's needed. So heat's being drawn out by the compressor (cold is just the absence of heat). And moisture's being drawn out by way of an evaporator and one or more fans.

The use of an outward drawing fan action creates a slight negative pressure. This pressure builds over time and then peaks, because the fans are only just so strong. By dint of this, note that the freezer door can at times be surprisingly difficult to open. A pressure differential has formed between the two sides. So anything in the freezer from which water can be drawn is going to be subject to these forces and will, of course, capitulate ...or as the Wikipedia article on the subject states,

  water can evaporate out of containers that do not have a very tight seal,..

This fact in combination with the risk of too thin a mill in plastic, (where too great a porosity is synonymous with a poor seal), would serve to perhaps best explain the results you've experienced. The solution as you've suggested is to contain the loaves of bread yet further, probably placing them in large freezer bags. Beyond this, no doubt there remains something to be said for the kind of refrigeration which does not worry itself over the matter of frost build-up. Anathema!, I know.

Another consideration is the possibility the bread is being quickly transitioned from a decidedly warm environment (such as the trunk of a hot car), straight into the freezer. This itself would cause slight condensation, (difficult to notice as it's absorbed by the bread), as here the permeability if the package works in reverse, initially drawing in water from the freezer. (There's always evaporated water in the air, air which can enter the freezer whenever the door is open, including for example water from our own respiration.) In short the noticeable brittleness of the bread crust would follow not only from having the moisture pulled out by the freezer, but from the fact that it was actually pre-moistened one step prior.

the bag must have no air. also i would advise slicing it since then you could use some time in oven or toaster to make crisp but not impossibly hard to work


How to wash pesticides from fruit skins? We eat many fruits and veggies at home and I am concerned about the amount pesticides on fruits like strawberries. Is washing the fruit effective enough? Does a thorough wash vs. a quick rinse make any difference?

A long term answer would be to grow your own if possible. That way you have complete control over your food. Or at least purchase from a local farmer that is willing to let you see how he/she grows their produce.

Even organics need to be washed. Most all commercial organics use a form of pest control (most likely diatomaceous earth), they also use natural fertilizers like manure and compost. None of those things are items you need to directly ingest.

The best advice I have is to wash then soak fruits and vegetables in lukewarm water. After a soak wash again. For foods with pitted surfaces, strawberries, potatoes, etc, use a soft bristled brush to gently scrub the food. That will get most anything off the outside.

Of course there will be trace amounts of anything that was sprayed on the item inside of the item.

Hope this helps.

A lot of pesticides are applied while the fruits is in bloom meaning it becomes embedded, as far as I'm concerned.   We only buy organic vegis and fruits for this reason now.   My father had a huge orchard and he sprayed everything himself ... back in the day.  Got emphysema from the spraying so I'm afraid of chemicals.


What should I do with my leftover bench flour? I make bread/pizza quite often, up to a few times per week. I work on a wooden surface for forming the dough and use a flour dredge to spread about 1 cup of flour per session on my surface. I would like to use more flour but don't like wasting the fairly expensive 00 flour I work with.  When I'm done making the pizza, I usually just scrape all of the leftover bench flour into the trash.

I would like to know if I can consider reusing the bench flour after it has come into contact with my dough, hands, and work surface. Would I be introducing bacteria or other unpleasant things into my flour bag if I put the flour back into it? Is there a different method I should use to keep the bench flour around for the next session?

The main problem I see is humidity - the bench flour can be lumpy, have bits of dough in it and will be partly moist. I would therefore not put it back in the main bag of flour.

If you use it like flour, it might leave dry lumps, so it depends on your technique whether it will work or not.
But there are techniques in bread baking that use leftover dough or even dry ground and soaked bread in new loaves - that's where I'd put it.

It can go into pre-ferments (even without yeast or starter), improving gluten development and dough texture. Unless it's absolutely dry, I recommend storing it in the freezer until your next baking day.

Apart from that: unless you are actively working the bench flour into your dough (vs. using just a bit to prevent sticking), have you considered using a "cheaper" flour?

Your flour is already contaminated with bacteria, even before touching it with your hands. If flour was a perishable food, you would have had to keep it in the fridge and use up within 3-5 days.

As it is not perishable, you can use the bench-contaminated flour just as the flour which was contaminated before the bench, no food safety concerns there.

While this doesn't seem to be the main point of your question, you can very simply get rid of the lumps Stephie mentions by sifting the flour before putting it back into the container. That way you have no real dough pieces stuck in it, and the additional moisture isn't sufficient to make it clump, etc.


Is there anything I can add to homemade bread to preserve it? I love making our own bread - we rarely buy shop bought, but it tends to go off very quickly. Part of the appeal is that it doesn't have any "junk" in it - artificial preservatives - which I'm sure contributes to the lovely flavor. Is there anything natural I can add to it to stop it going moldy so fast?

My whole wheat bread takes 4x to go off than my white bread. Even a mixture of 50% whole wheat flour will make it last longer. But that will only help if the problem is the bread getting hard too soon. That can also be prevented by keeping it in a plastic bag. You'll get the mold before the bread goes stale.

If you're keeping the bread in a plastic bag, try paper bags.

To solve the mold problem, the traditional way is to add some acidity. For example, you can add a sourdough starter. If you don't like the taste of sourdough, a poolish starter should also help. The bacteria it grows will prevent the mold growing.

I know it's not what you're asking, but freezing will also help. When you bake more bread than you eat, freeze it wrapped in a plastic bag and thaw it overnight and you will get a good, fresh bread.

Modern 'fast' bread made with store-bought yeast goes stale quickly because the organisms that make it stale can find a home in your fresh bread.
Making sourdough using a starter (even if it's not very sour!) means that you have a wide variety of organisms in your bread, so it doesn't go stale mouldy or stale nearly so easily.
I used to make bread with quick-action yeast, and it would go stale in a day or two. I now make it more slowly with my home-grown starter, and it's soft and tasty after a week.
Old-fashioned preservative - and much better for you!
See How To Make Sourdough Bread Last Longer,  Katz explains how it works better in his book "The Art of Fermentation".