How do I know if a given pickle recipe is meant for long-term storage? I've never canned or pickled anything; however, I'm keen to give it a shot. However, I'm the only one in my family who likes cucumber pickles, so it might take me a while to go through a batch. There are a lot of recipes out there for "refrigerator pickles" which only keep for a few weeks; what steps are taken in a real pickle recipe that mark it as one for long-term storage? Can a refrigerator pickle recipe be converted to long-term storage?

Pickle recipes meant for longer-term storage will include instructions for sealing the jars.  While some recipes may have you use hot jars and hot brine that will result in a fairly reliable seal ratio (meaning most of the jars will properly seal), other recipes will have you put the filled and closed jars in a boiling water bath to be processed for a specific amount of time.  I've found this method to yield an even higher ratio of properly sealed jars.

In either scenario, the sign of a sealed jar (assuming you are using canning jars with a lid and ring system) is an indented dome on the lid.  Jars that do not seal properly will still have a protruding dome.

Most recipes will have all the specific information you need to make pickles including the shelf life of sealed jars.  The Ball canning jar company has a  good website: http://www.freshpreserving.com/recipes.aspx

Best of luck - I hope your pickles are a tasty success!

As the time passes, vinegar-based pickles will absorb more acid, so reducing the amount of vinegar will help keep them tasty.

Other thing is that refrigerator receipes usually tell you to just cover or cover loosely the jar. For long-term storage you could can them. The simplest way, that I use mostly for jams (I don't like vinegar pickles, just sour pickles) is to pour the boiling marinade into the jar with veggies, immediately close it tightly and turn upside down (the jar and the cover get hot VERY quickly!). The boiling liquid will sterilise veggies and when it cools, the little amount of air inside the jar will seal the jar. Sometimes the middle of the cover will not pop down - those are not properly closed and should be stored like refrigerator pickles.

Returning to the vinegar. My grandma uses usually 1 portion of vinegar per 4 portions of water. This way the canned pickles will last even 2 years (well, maybe even longer, but I don't remember ever eating any older pickles) and have a beautifully mild taste. My picky 3-year old loves her pickled pears!

If you are afraid that you will be the only one to eat your pickles, maybe just make them in small batches? Just a half-liter jar or two per receipe. I know it's more work this way, but you wouldn't have to worry about the storage time.


Why did my salsa go bitter? Recently I made 2 separate batches of salsa from the same ingredients:
1x Red Capsicum
1x Brown Onion
3x Green chilis
Half a head of garlic
Salt
Sugar
Lime Juice

The first batch was great. I dirced all ingredients to smaller than 2mm pieces, mixed it all together and it was lovely. For the second batch I decided that I didn't have the time to dice everything by hand (I am not very fast with a knife) and so I threw everything in the blender and blended until it was a frothy brown liquid.

The second batch was very bitter despite being made from the same quantities of each ingredient, all of which had been purchased on the day and everything was fresh.

Is there something about the liquifying my ingredients that caused my second batch to be bitter that would not have been caused by dicing them?

While I haven't heard of it happening for the specific ingredients you list, yes, the blender can make stuff really bitter.

There are two ways this can happen. First, a chemical reaction. A blender really churns the stuff through, driving lots of air bubbles into the mixture with some force. It also causes friction heat, especially professional grade blenders like vitamix. The heat, force and large reaction surface can cause the oxygen in the air to enter a reaction with the ingredients which doesn't happen when using a milder method for cutting up. Olive oil is a known culprit here, it usually turns bitter when blended, but it can happen with other stuff too.

Besides oxygen, a chemical reaction can also happen between two ingredients coming from two different vegetables, which would not have been mixed well enough in the knife scenario to produce noticeable amounts of reaction product.

The second possibility is releasing stuff which would have stayed "packed" without the blender. A knife will only damage the plant cells at the cut surfaces, and a blunt knife, if used with a somewhat inefficient technique, might even break very ripe vegetables along the cell walls instead of cutting through the cells. If there are mini-droplets of something bitter within the plant cells, it is possible that the blender (which really cuts cells into pieces) released these things. On a more macro level, it is also possible that we are not talking mini-droplets, but just plant parts which didn't get cut with the knife. Stray pepper seeds come in mind: you probably didn't cut any with the knife, they tend to be pushed by a knife instead of cut when you are cutting the pepper. The blender pulverizes everything that hits the blades, including these seeds.

I cannot know which of these is the most probable source, or which plant contained the bitter matter exposed/created by the blender. But the different methods of mincing vegetables are not equivalent, and can have very noticeable effects on taste and texture beyond the obvious chunk size. The bitterness you encountered is only one example. In general, use the method specified in a recipe. If you are not working from a written recipe, try out a few and see which works best.

I'm pretty sure it's the onions, some are a lot stronger than others and even different sizes can vary. I have to add extra tomato to even it out sometimes.


Should one always use the whole garlic clove? When using garlic cloves for pretty much anything, is it ever necessary to cut the slightly brown end off (that which connects to the head), or the middle out? Often times when I peel a garlic clove and cut into it I'll notice that the middle portion is slightly to moderately green and I'm always wondering if this should be discarded along with the brown end(s). If there are obvious blemishes in the garlic I'll remove those, but other than that is there a general rule of thumb?

The green in the center can have a bitter taste, and many chefs prefer to remove them. If the taste and color don't bother you, it will not cause problems for the dish.

The brown end tends to a have a harder consistency than the rest of the clove, so may cause a problem depending on how you cook the garlic. If you're cooking it in a manner that leads to a very soft and mushy piece of garlic, you'd be better off discarding it. (Boiling in soup, for example.) It probably would not make much of a difference if you were browning the garlic for a topping.

I am told that cutting garlic releases a bitter taste; therefore best to use whole.


Are these worms in my black eyed peas/beans? I was cooking some organic black eyed peas earlier today and I found what appeared to be worms. I had the peas for about 1.5 weeks before I cooked them.

Is this common?
I did rinse the peas before cooking them, but clearly that wasn't enough. What steps can I take to prevent this (assuming this the norm for organic black eyed peas)
How long are these good for? (Should I eat them sooner?)
I had taken a few spoonfuls before I finally realized this -- should I be concerned?

I apologize for such an elementary question. I've recently been told by my physician that I need to make some diet changes, so I've been cooking with foods I would otherwise not eat.

To take one concern away - practically none of the worm-looking parasites in food are dangerous. They are yucky, but harmless, even nutritious.

But as far as I can see it from the picture, these are not worms at all. Beans and related plants have an embryo in their seeds. In white legumes, the embryo is a light pink color and looks indeed like a larva. The way to check is to look at the still-intact beans. They are all made up of two symmetrical halves inside. Cut them open through the plane which separates the two halves. If they have your suspect at the concave part of the bean, where it used to attach to the pod, then this is the embryo, just a normal part of the seed which is supposed to grow into a new plant when planted.

If the embryo of multiple beans looks differently from that (or is too small to notice), then these may be larvae after all. In this case, you will probably choose to discard the food because of the disgust factor. It is still not objectively unsafe.

They are worms. and they bite or sting our purple hull peas. and you break apart pea and there is a little white worm with little brown dot for head. and they are crawling.


Smoked a brisket that was edible but not great. What would you do differently? I smoked my first brisket last weekend and even though it wasn't terrible it was a little dryer and rougher than I would have liked.

Here is the smoker I used: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B7W8NHW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Here are the steps I followed (along with some notes on things I may have done wrong):

I bought a four pound fresh brisket from a butcher.  It was 9.99/lb (next time I'm going to hit up Sam's club and try and get a 10-12 lb packer cut of USDA Choice)
I used Stubb's store bought dry rub.  I rubbed it on and then seared the meat on the grill.  I did not sear the fat cap. (Should I have let the dry rub sit longer?  Also, next time I'm thinking about doing equal parts salt, pepper, and paprika.  Should I have seared at all?  A lot of people seem to throw the meat right in the smoker after giving the dry rub some time to set in).
I had turned the smoker on and set it to 200 degrees before searing, so when I put the brisket in it was at 200 degrees and was already smoking.  I used dry wood chips and filled the water pan to the mark specified in the pan.
The smoker stopped producing smoke about 30 min in.  I wet some wood chips and put them in, but the smoke never came back.  (How often should I be adding wood chips?  Should they be wet? How long should the smoker be spitting out smoke?)
I let it sit for six hours.  I didn't have a meat thermometer at the time.  (What internal temp should I go for next time?)
I pulled the meat out, didn't wrap it in foil, and cut it after 20 min.  The bark looked nice but the meat was brown like a pot roast. I know when I get good restraunt BBQ that the meat tends to be a little red/pink.  The meat still tasted ok although it was a little tough.

Other questions.  Should I have wrapped the brisket in foil at some point?  When should I do this and what are instructions for after?  Some people seem to advocate doing so once the meat hits ~150 degrees F which will drastically decrease the cooking time.  Others seem to advocate taking the brisket out when it hits about 180, wrapping it in foil, then putting it in an empty cooler until it rises to ~200.

I know that this is really a bunch of questions rolled into one but I feel like this is a typical experience for a smoking newbie like myself.  I don't expect answers for every item but please try and point out the things I've done which are just empirically wrong.

From what I can tell you're generally on the right track here. From what you've said, there are probably just a few issues.

tough/dry/rough. Believe it or not not cooking long enough could be the problem here. You want your brisket to get in that 190-200 range, this will cause the connective tissue to break down and make it very nice. The other possibility here (and you didn't say so we don't know), is that brisket can be very tough if it's not cut properly. You need to cut the flat across the grain for it to be tender as it's a very long muscle.
Lack of a smoke ring. This is what we call the pink ring around the outer bit of the meat. You don't want the inside to be pink, you want the outside to have a pink ring around it. This can be unpredictable in formation and depends on a lot of things. If you liked how much smoke flavor your meat had, I wouldn't change anything, but if you wanted more smoke, try to either put in more wood chips at the start, or put them in dry (careful though, you don't want them to burn, but wetting them really just slows the burn time). From what I've read, the smoke ring forms early, so the first hour or so is the important part here.
Foil. This is hotly debated in the BBQ world. I only foil if I need to hold my meat for a period of time (if I mistime and finish early I'll wrap it up, drop it in a foam cooler with towls), but a lot of people swear by it for producing juicier meat. Totally up to you, experiment here.

Lastly, a few bits of advice (I've done a couple of briskets now, all on charcoal though). Don't bother to sear the meat, let your smoker take care of the whole cook. Do that, make sure you get your meat up to temp (brisket is hard to tell without a thermometer as it doesn't have a bone you can check, so go get an instant read one, they aren't too expensive). As far as the dry rub goes, that's a matter of taste, a lot of folks put it on the night before, but the meat gets plenty of flavor just applying it right before you put it on.

The fact that the meat was brown just says that it went too long.  Invest in a meat thermometer, take it out when it hits 160 and rest.  (Pull the meat out take the temp, don't do it in the oven or the smoker) I think you did everything else right.

Wood chips that aren't on fire will not create smoke, it's really steam they release and when the water content is gone, it stops.  So in a traditional BBQ house smoker, that wood is on a low burning flame.  Otherwise they are just dampening the wood to create wood flavored steam.

I'm kind of laughing at what people say about letting it get to 200 degrees, that's crazy talk.  That is some really overdone meat right there.


Does sauteing onions produce alcohol or something similar to alcohol? I came up positive on test for alcohol after eating sautéed onions.

SCRAM bracelet recorded alcohol in my system from 5 pm to 7 am. I did not drink alcohol, or use alcohol to make the onions. I read on another site about how cooking process of making sauteed or grilled onions can produce glycerol from the onion sugar and the heat from cooking. Glycerol is actually two alcohols.

Could the onions have caused this?

Some conditions can cause alcohol to be produced in the human body (look up auto-brewery syndrome). Sauteed onions are common enough that if they made people come up positive on alcohol tests, I bet we would all know it.

I don't think you could make an onion ferment.  Saute if anything would boil off alcohol.   Were the onions possible sautéed in alcohol?   I use red wine to saute red onions.

Also environment can also cause a false positive.  Search on scram false positive.


What's the best way to peel an onion? I'm a pro at dicing an onion. My issue is always peeling it. The papery skin is so tough to get off, and I'm never sure just how many layers to peel off.

Does anyone have any sure-fire tips on how to peel an onion in 2.5 seconds every time?

Cut the sprout end off.
Place the cut end on the board, slice the onion in half vertically (i.e. place your knife on the root and cut down)
If the outer skin layer is nice and thick, pull it off from one corner. Repeat on other half.
If the outer skin is papery, pull it and one layer of onion flesh off from one corner. Repeat on other half.

If the first layer of onion flesh is slightly dimpled or has a kind of matte finish, it's probably turning 'skinny'. Strip that off too.

Soak the onions in plain or luke warm water for 15 minutes. This will help in peeling off the onions easily.


How can I keep pasta shapes intact? I frequently make wagon wheel (rotelle) pasta (Racconto brand and probably others) for my kids, but the shapes rarely stay intact.  Pieces of the outer edges often break off of most pieces, and some wheels are completely severed in two.

I noticed that pieces are already breaking apart during my initial constant stirring to unstick it from the bottom of the pot.  I do stir it fairly frequently, especially at the start.  I also use plenty of water--three or four inches above the pasta, about three quarts water and one cup pasta.

What can be done to cook the rotelle and help keep it intact?

Try starting with the pasta in cold water. This lets you stir it to wash the starch off the surface of the pasta while it's still completely hard, so you can't possibly damage it. Then it'll stick way less as it cooks, so you shouldn't need to stir nearly so much, and hopefully it's not breaking just from cooking.

This works because the starch doesn't actually get sticky until it's heated, so this way you have all the starch dissolved before it's sticky. On the other hand, when you add pasta to hot water (even if it's boiling) the starch instantly becomes sticky, and it's only the motion of the water and your stirring that saves it from all sticking together. (And as you've seen, if there's enough starch, sometimes this isn't enough.)

If you still have trouble with sticking, I suppose you could even remove some of the starchy cold water, effectively partially rinsing it. Some brands and shapes of pasta do seem to have more starch on the surface, so I could see that being necessary. You could also simply try using more water (but still starting with cold water!) so that the starch is more diluted; this is roughly equivalent to rinsing a little.

And if all of that fails, you may want to try another brand, as suggested in various comments here. The fact that it breaks during the initial stirring, before it's had time to soften much, is not promising.

(And before someone comes along and says "no, the water has to be at a full boil when you add the pasta!" yes, I have done this many many times, it works fine, and Harold McGee says it works too.)

For one more bit of evidence, simply starting with cold water even keeps orecchiette (dry, not fresh) from sticking - and that's by far the worst-sticking pasta shape I've ever tried. They fit together so that once they're stuck, the water can't even get in to rinse off the starch.

The proper way to cook 100 grams of PASTA:

use at least 1 litre of water with 10 grams of salt
bring the water to boil
put the pasta into the boiling water and stir it for a few seconds, then add to the water a little of oil to maintain pasta separate without steering continuously
keep the water boiling until the end of the cooking time (usually for that pasta format no more than 9 minutes)
drain pasta and immediately add your sauce, or butter, or oil

Enjoy your meal!


Can you safely use a cast-iron grill pan as a heat diffuser? We recently got an earthenware tagine. However, being earthenware, it can't be directly exposed to the stove flames. The manual calls for a heat diffuser, but those are apparently impossible to find (there's a store 45 minutes away in another city that might have some).

I know you can use a cast-iron skillet as a heat diffuser in a pinch, but we don't have one large enough. What we do have, however, is a large cast-iron grill pan. I initially thought that the ridges inside it would be a problem, causing uneven heating, and thus dismissed that idea -- but after some searching it looks like the overwhelming majority of heat diffusers actually have ridges, domes, holes, or other surface features that would produce uneven heating anyways!

So...can I safely use a cast-iron grill pan as a heat diffuser? If not, why not? In either case, what's the purpose of the various surface features on heat diffusers that prevent them from uniformly contacting the cookware on top of them?

I see absolutely no reason not to do that. As you say, the very nature of diffusers is that they aren't smooth. Keep in mind that it's not just extreme heat that you want to avoid, but also extreme changes in temperature. So you want to heat the tagine with the implement that you are using as a diffuser.

Also, unglazed earthenware tagines are usually seasoned. Is your tagine glazed? Apparently that process can also be called "healing" and involve garlic, although the term is from a different culture. Is it necessary to "heal" clay pots?

If you want a purpose-made diffuser, you can buy it online instead of trying to substitute something else. For example, Amazon has a large selection.


How can I create a sweet pizza that looks like pizza? Looking for a bit of inspiration for an idea I have. I want to serve 3 courses of pizza: starter, main and dessert. It's a gimmick, I know, but a fun one I think.

Got the starter and main nailed, but as neither of these will look much like a standard pizza, I wanted the dessert to look just like a pizza.

My (as yet untested) idea is to make a slightly sweeter base (not too sweet, toppings will add sweetness) and for toppings I am thinking:

Rasberry Jam (as the red base)
Mascarpone and peanut butter (as the cheese, peanut butter to add a little crunch)
Caramelised Sugared banana slices (hopefully, these will come out brown enough to look a little like pepperoni)

Will the above work?  If so, do you have any suggestions for the execution?  If not, what should I do instead?

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

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

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

a cinnamon bun pizza

Sweet Yeast Dough rolled out
Drizzle with melted butter with cinnamon & icing sugar
Bake & drizzle with milk based icing!


homemade mint extract I've got some mint in the yard (I think it's apple mint, as the leaves are very fuzzy and rounded) from which I'd like to make mint extract. No specific use in mind (except perhaps insect repellent), just a kind of home chemistry experiment.

I've read that there are basically two ways to do this. One involves boiling the leaves, condensing the steam, and separating the oil. But the simplest way seems to be to steep the leaves in 80-proof vodka for about a month.

I have some questions:

Is there something special (chemistry-wise) about alcohol that makes it more effective than other substances for extracting the oil?
How strong would this "mint extract" be? It seems to me like I'd end up with mint-flavored vodka. Would the result be drinkable straight?
After doing this, could I then freeze the result to separate the oil from the vodka?

Why Alcohol?
Alcohol is used for extracts because the flavor compounds (plant oils) you are trying to extract do not easily dissolve in water. Alcohol (typically bourbon or vodka) will do the trick. Make sure you use +80 proof because it also acts as a preservative.
Making Mint Extract
To make an extract, tear up or coarsely chop and bruise washed mint leaves into a measuring cup (you'll end up with about twice the volume of extract as you have leaves). Transfer the leaves to a glass container with a tight-fitting lid. Add about twice the alcohol (by volume) as you had leaves. Cover and shake.
The mint leaves will tend to float to the top, but give it a chance. After a few days, they'll start to bog down with alcohol and sink. Shake it every few days or so. After a month, you'll have mint extract. Strain the leaves and store.
Adjusting the Strength of Your Extract
The longer you let the leaves steep, the stronger the extract will become until all the oils are essentially spent. You can sample the extract along the way until you get something to your liking. If you want something stronger, you can add fresh leaves to your strained extract and continue the process. There's a limit though; as the alcohol become saturated, you'll get diminishing returns by adding more leaves.
Freezing the extract will not congeal the oils for further separation. They're essentially dissolved in the alcohol (unlike water + oil) and the alcohol will not freeze. Extracts are typically too concentrated to drink straight. For all that effort, it's better just to crush a few leaves directly into a drink with whatever ingredients will make it a proper cocktail.
Boiled Leaves isn't Really Mint Extract
The boiling water method you mentioned above wont achieve the same results. Even if concentrated, the flavor compounds in extracts are typically somewhat volatile (which is why you add them near the end of cooking). You're basically making concentrated, flavored mint tea… but it isn't really an extract. And without the alcohol acting as a preservative, you're mint tea will have a somewhat limited shelf life. Even distilling the volatile oils by boiling and condensing into a liquid might get you pure mint oil, but that would likely need very specialized equipment.

What if you heated the extract to remove the alcohol antifreeze?   The alcohol cooks out at 172.4.  Does anyone know the temp that the mint oil cooks out?  Would the alcohol free liquid then separate the water and oil?


Are black prawns safe to eat I bought some prawns yesterday at a supermarket. Although displayed on the fish counter with fresh fish, they were clearly frozen or partially frozen. I put them in the fridge over night.

Today, I've noted they've turned black. After a little research, it shows this could be due to oxidation, although others have commented they've never seen this before even if they've worked in "the" industry.

And one comment suggested that any black on prawns means they're spoiled and should be binned/destoryed. This is the part I'm sure of.

I have tried to wash with running water and can't remove this black colour.

There is no unexpected odour.

Sadly, I've also noted that the squid which I bought has released its link. Although all this fish was in the same outer bag, the squid was it its own bag and it doesn't appear to have leaked.

After taking the shell off, there isn't really any colouration to the flesh.

Is is possible to know if they are safe. Is this a known thing - that prawns turn black and it means either oxidation or that they're spoiled?

They look like they have been blanched. Or dipped in boiling water. The red.This is some times done if they have parisites on them. But froze? & shipped?  I am talking about prawn fresh of the boat at home. Then blanched & froze at home for later use.  I would avoid these if store bought. If I did not know they were boat fresh. How handled. Many prawn & shrimp are black in color. But not like that.


How can I wash down spicy food? Say, for example, I eat a very spicy jalapeno and I have a burning sensation in my mouth and throat.

Are there any foods or drinks to wash that away?

The chemical responsible for "the burn" is Capsaicin. The main reason you and everyone else has trouble with the lingering burning sensation is that it's not water soluble (which means it doesn't dissolve in water). So, flooding your mouth with water-based liquids doesn't loosen up those Capsaicin molecules on your tongue and throat.

Like @Iuls says, the most common and effective relief comes from full-fat milk or cream. That's because, while Capsaicin isn't able to be dissolved by water, it is fat soluble. It's also why more than a few people have been upset that the "milk solution" didn't work, when they tried it with skim milk.

If you're looking for a more "fun" solution, it's worth noting that Capsaicin is also alcohol soluble, which might explain all of that tequila and beer they sell at Mexican restaurants.

A cold Cola works very well. I guess a Pepsi would also do the trick.


Can ghee be used instead of butter in dessert recipes? Butter is an inevitable ingredient in most of dessert recipes. By definition, ghee is just clarified butter, but to me, the taste is completely different. The taste of butter is more close to heavy cream, while that of ghee is more close to cooking oil (at least to my tongue).

Is it good to use ghee instead of butter in dessert and pastry recipes`? Doesn't it ruin the taste to be far from the original standard?

moved here from a comment:

Ghee does have a different aroma and consistency, so, depending on the use of it in the recipe (wether it is used for frying or in the frosting for example), it will quite likely change the final result.

So in some cases substituting butter with some neutral flavored oil or margarine might be better than ghee. Which, I know, might not help if ghee is all you've got.

Also wanted to include what @rumtscho adds in the comment above:

  in recipes where the fat ratio is important, ghee (which is 100% fat)
  can ruin the ratio because butter is 83% fat.

And as to standards, they can be quite relative (making something that tastes slightly different doesn't necessarily ruin it) ... if you are making the desert for an indian audience, using clarified butter might taste quite normal =)

Ghee doesn't work well with the oven nor microwave. I suggest you use real butter store-bought and walk some extra miles if you don't want to gain weight.


Premix dry herbs for easy oil pasta How normal is it to use premixed dried herbs with pre-toasted garlic as a quick oil pasta preparation? Is it presumable that one can just use supermarket brands in making one's own premixes, or is it still incumbent to use just-dried herbs?

In Italy, I was able to buy some packs of mixed dry herbs. Printed on them was an obvious "aglio e olio". The packs varied in content, but all contained garlic. One variant had sun-dried tomatoes, another had a lot of chili flakes. I think I spotted some dried basil and parsley.

Do it...taste it..if you like it go on doing it...there is no normal and abnormal in the kitchen as in life, it is subjective not objective. I do it sometimes. And I mix also the dry herbs worth dry bread for schnitzel or to sprinkle on oven cooked vegetables

In my personal experience, in the USA you will get fresher/better herbs at a lower price in the bulk spice section of your co-op/natural foods store than you will as "supermarket brands." YMMV.


Why is cream curdled in coffee? Why would liquid half-and-half creamer curdle when poured into hot coffee? This happens to me sometimes, and I'm not sure why. Could it have something to do with either the coffee being too hot or the creamer being too cold?

I would think this is happening because your cream is just about to turn sour.

As cream ages, lactic acid builds up in it.  The acidity in your coffee is enough at that point to push the cream over the edge to curdling.

Try newer cream or a very low-acid coffee with old cream and you should be OK.

The acid in coffee causes the cream to curdle.


What is the hottest part of a chili/chilli/chile pepper? I often hear different points of view to this question - some say the hottest part of the chili is its seeds, yet I've heard some (arguably more believable) sources claim that the white part that holds the seeds to the flesh is the hottest.

What part of the chili fruit is the hottest?

The Wikipedia article on Capsicum reads, citing a FAQ on a page of the ollege of Agriculture and Home Economics of the New Mexico State University:

  Capsaicin is present in large quantities in the placental tissue (which holds the seeds), the internal membranes and, to a lesser extent, the other fleshy parts of the fruits of plants in the genus Capsicum. Contrary to popular belief, the seeds themselves do not produce any capsaicin, although the highest concentration of capsaicin can be found in the white pith around the seeds.

Cisneros-Pineda et al. measured via gas chromatography the content of capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin in the pericarp, placenta, and seeds of seven cultivars of chili peppers and the results confirm this:

For dihydrocapsaicin, the difference is not so large, but the placenta still has a higher concentration.

In terms of concentration considering fresh mass the difference won't be as dramatic because while the seeds lose around half their mass by drying, the placenta will lose 90%.

Exactly, ribs and placenta contain the hottest part. That's the point for hotness.
In regards to seeds, I do not recomend to add seeds to any hot cooked or raw sauce,  because seeds are not good for our digestion, in any pepper, hard to process them.
Just think, do you add seeds when cooking a red sweet bell pepper? I love hotness but I always take the seeds out of my salsas, for health.
I do not understand why chefs add seeds... Are they just lazy or ignorants about our health issues?


What are the signs that indicate that raw honey has spoilt? If the raw honey goes bad, how would I know?

What should I keep on looking for? Floating fungus?

Honey might go bad in two ways - one involves stuff growing on the surface of the honey, the other involves the honey itself fermenting.  In both cases, the spoilage is connected to exceedingly poor storage - as other answers mentioned, honey is difficult to spoil... but difficult is not the same thing as impossible, right :)

Honey that ferments is usually linked to high water content - some honeys have a higher water content naturally, some might have water added at some point (for example, to deter crystallization), some might have water leaked into a container and puddled on top or along the edges, and honey will absorb moisture from the air if left unsealed, and eventually reach a saturation where the water is no longer a limiting factor to yeasts.  In any case, part of honey's preservative qualities is the lack of available water and too high concentration of sugars inhibits most spoiling organisms - so when that extra water becomes available, honey turns from "never goes bad" to "potent food source for yeasts", especially since as the yeast eat the sugars, they also lower the concentrations from something inhospitable to yeasts, to something that can support more yeast growth - so the fermentation will continue progressing.  A small puddle of water can gradually lead to a whole container fermenting because the local dilution is much greater than the total water percentage, and once given a foothold the yeasts will keep eating the concentrations further down into yeast-inhabitable ranges.

Some fermentation is more problematic than others - for example, mead probably originates from a spontaneous fermentation of honey that was enjoyable, on the other hand, different yeasts may give off bad odors and off flavors.  If your honey has fermented to the point of spoilage, it will smell bad, look cloudy, and taste terrible.  It will also foam (carbon dioxide production), may separate, may bulge if the container permits, all that good stuff that warns if any foodstuff in fermenting.  There is some stuff on that page about natural beneficial fermentation and typical crystallization patterns, but that isn't relevant to the question of spoilage

The other way honey might go bad, is having some debris accumulate on the surface of honey (cross contamination), that gives some mold or other bacteria enough food to get a foothold.  Again, honey itself is a poor source of food if properly stored - not enough water, not enough available food to get a foothold - but add debris, crumbs, or whatever that can spoil more easily right on the surface, and that can give mold or whatever enough of a toehold to build a floating colony, as you envisioned.  If there's enough debris or moisture on the surface, the mold might start nibbling at the surface of the honey - which will start lowering the sugar content to something mold can find hospitable, much the same way fermentation can progress.

You might be able to simply remove the colony or even the top layer to salvage the honey, if you are willing to risk it, since honey is known to be rather inhospitable to dangerous organisms.  And if the honey is properly stored afterwards, any critters left shouldn't be able to re-colonize since they needed the crumbs to get a toehold in the first place - but only you can decide what you will risk.

Heavy amounts of crystallization will show that the honey is old, but warming it will melt the crystals. Never seen it get fungus.


Should I soak old-fashioned oats? I have eaten quick cook oats for a while, but I now found a wholesale supplier selling what I think are old-fashioned oats. That is, the oats are larger and they seem less 'processed'. When I add water to them the water quickly turns white. Also see here.

My question is: should I soak/wash these oats, or can I just boil them straight away? With rice and beans I am used to having to soak or wash them, sometimes for a day. Not sure if the same applies here. If so, how long for? And should I use that water to cook them in, or throw it out and then add new water?

You don't even need to cook them, let alone soak them.
They form the bulk of most mueslis, to be eaten raw.

However, if you're going to be making porridge...
The basic recipe has as many variations as there are people who cook it, but take any or all of

Water
Milk
Salt
Sugar [or honey or anything sweet]
Oats

Use approx 300ml liquid to 50g oats per person as a start point. Bring to the boil, simmer for 5 - 7 minutes depending on your desired consistency.  Very "old fashioned" jumbo oats will still boil down to nearly mush if you leave them long enough, though most people want that bit of bite left to them.

Some make it thin, some make it thick. Some make it thick but then add cold milk to their dish. Some make it smooth, some leave it less-cooked still with big bits in. Some cook with the sugar in, some only add it at the end.
Some leave out the salt, though personally I think it's essential.

There is no hard & fast rule; make it how you like.

From comments...
The bigger & less refined the oat, the longer it will take to cook right down to a 'paste' - but often the entire idea of using big rustic oats is not to overcook them, but leave some bite.
I wouldn't dream of pre-soaking them, there's absolutely no need. If you want them cooked to paste, cook longer, or change back to a more refined brand. Some of the outer part will probably not cook right down anyway with very 'rustic' oats.

The Guardian - How to cook perfect porridge goes on at length about various methods, but comes down to pretty much what I've already written above, with no pre-soak [not one single mention of rinsing, btw, just don't do that].

You should wash the oats anyway to remove dust and/or pollution that could be in the package.

Soaking oats only made them cook faster. Leaving them for a night to soak don't waste any energy and in the morning they can be prepared in less time with less heat for a shorter time.

The white water comes from starch. Just like in rice. Cooking them in this white water will make for good porridge and turn them into sort of pulp when cooking with fresh water will give you non sticky oats (just like non-stick rice). How to cook depends on how you like them and for what you want to use them.


What is the proper ratio of heavy cream to chocolate for a thick ganache? Most recipes on the internet call for a 1:1 ratio that I've seen but this ends up being rather watery. I want a thick chocolaty ganache.

Is there anything special that needs to be done to achieve this other than adjusting the ratios? Right now I'm basically doing the "mix simmering heavy cream with chocolate" recipe.

Normal ganache is 1:1 indeed. You can make a more caramelly one by adding honey and butter:
try 14 oz cream, 12 oz chocolate, 2 oz honey, 6 oz butter diced into small cubes.

Boil the cream and honey together, pour over the chocolate, stir until melted, melt in the butter.

There is no better way to reduce chocolate ratio but other alternative will just adjust the flavor, you may try cream cheese which will not alter the chocolate flavor that much compares to other alternatives . Next to cheese probably nuts. That will helps in the thickening .


Why do Asian savory recipes call for a few pinches of sugar? I've got a few Asian recipes (e.g. Mongolian lamb and Singapore duck) that request only ⅛ teaspoon of sugar for a meal fit for 2 or 3 people. That feels too little to affect sweetness.

Are there particular ingredients common in Asian cuisine that require de-acidifying with sugar, or is the sugar used for another purpose?

First, there are plenty of sour ingredients in Asian cooking, that are de-acidified by a little sugar. Tomato paste, peppers and soy are examples that come to mind.

Second, and this is the Zen-style answer, is that the sugar is to sweeten the dish a little. One teaspoon of sugar in a sauce is plenty sweet enough, especially if you're not used to having 6tsp of sugar in a can of Coke daily. Sweetness, like saltiness and spicyness, is something we get used to easily.

since i don not use MSG, I add a pinch of sugar to add flavor to my recipe.
aside from that, in our country we celebrate fiestas. we prepare foods in great quantity. like estofado(pork with banana, potato and pineapple) it is really a sweet menu becuase we add generous amount of mascovado sugar to achieve its ideal flavor. this food is still edible after two days with out keeping inside the fridge. i am convinced that sugar contributes to the preservation of food.


Is it true that bananas are radioactive? Is it true that bananas are radioactive, and if you eat too many it can kill you? If yes then how many bananas are good to eat at once.

Yes, it's true that bananas are radioactive, however, the amount of radiation that you get from eating a banana is negligible. It's also true that eating too many bananas can kill you, but if you manage to eat enough bananas to get radiation poisoning, you're going to die from something else long before potassium exposure comes into the equation - like, say, the death penalty after murdering the next person to bring a banana within 50 miles of you.

Source https://xkcd.com/radiation/

Bananas are on the left, third from the top. To better communicate the scale, the top legal (i.e. totally negligible) radiation dose for US workers is equivalent to eating 500,000 bananas/year.

There is actually a unit of radiation exposure measurement called the Banana equivalent dose. Suffice to say, there are about a thousand other sources of radiation in your day to day life that you should worry about before how many bananas you eat starts to become a real concern. You can safely eat as many bananas as you please, at least, from a radioactivity standpoint.

Yes, but it's extremely small.
Bananas do have a very small amount of radioactivity, but as showed by the chart linked in another answer, it's a really small amount, compared to the amount you are exposed to by being around everyday items/doing everyday activities.
You would need to eat several million bananas in a short time span to actually suffer ill effects/die, which we all know is basically impossible. The bananas would've probably killed you some other way.
Basically, don't worry.


What is the relationship between salt and iodine? I have seen and read some comments from the post: What is the difference between sea salt and regular table salt?

My questions are.

Does Rock or Natural salt contain iodine?
Does Table Salt contain Iodine or has Iodine been removed?
Does "Iodised" / "Iodized" table salt have Iodine added?

I have been having a discussion with a friend on whether Iodine is added to salt.

Iodine is commonly added to table salt, hence the term "Iodized".

This is purely a public health issue, much like fluoridation of water.   The human body needs small quantities of Iodine for good health, and salt was the method chosen to give it to us.  Just as fluoride is added to water, and Vitamin D is added to milk.  It actually has nothing to do with the product, it's just a convenient carrier.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodised_salt  for more information.

In an effort to prevent goiter related to iodine deficiency, authorities ruled that iodine be added to U.S. salt products in 1924.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2377052/How-adding-iodine-salt-America-smarter.html#ixzz3YsW6Dod7


Cooking kidney beans that just started to sprout a little I have some kidney beans that I soaked overnight to cook the next day but didn't get a chance and accidentally left them out and it's been fairly hot lately. Some of the beans started to get little sprouts poking out. There's also a little bit of a smell. Is it still safe to cook the batch or have I wasted a bunch of beans?

This is totally safe to eat as long as you cook them. The taste and the texture would be a little bit different than what you use to though.

Here is an article about the safety of eating sprouted beans.

Personally, I would not cook & serve those beans.  Beans have such an "acid-y"  (not a word, I know) kind of taste anyways, which can & does show up in the final result despite the salt and spices you add...

Then there's the gas issue from those little buggers! Suppose the chemical changes in the bean which resulted in baby sprouts also results in more digestibility issues?

Dried beans cooked into soups & stews are the most under appreciated protein in the world. Seriously. I would not risk turning any of your family or friends into bean-haters; Especially since they are the last affordable but high-quality food.


I left fully cooked lasagna out all night I left fully cooked lasagna out on the counter all night. My house is 72 degrees Fahrenheit (22 degrees Celsius). Is it safe to reheat and eat?

Throw this out. The general rule of thumb is that food that isn't otherwise preserved (through  large quantities of acid or sugar for example) must not be in the danger zone from 40-140 degrees Fahrenheit for more than 2 hours. In practice this is an oversimplification - see the incredible and incredibly detailed food safety section in Modernist Cuisine for the whole story. Overnight is way too long. It is quite possible for bacteria to have multiplied and secreted toxins which are heat stable. E. Coli and Staph. Aureus both do this, for example. Reheating will not make this safe. It isn't worth making yourself or your family horribly ill. Order pizza.

If by reheat you mean get the internal temperature up over 140F for more than 10 minutes (and it won't really taste "hot" until you do so), then it's totally fine, provided that it was fully cooked originally.

That said, if you cooked it fully originally, unless there's something a little funky about your ingredients, you're probably fine to eat it cold right now. Of course "probably" is very different than definitely.

Hence, 140F if you wish to be sure. Alternately, touching 165F would be plenty; don't even have to wait the ten minutes.


What's the purpose of nutmeg in mashed potatoes and white sauce? I've seen lots of recipes that call for a pinch of nutmeg in mashed potatoes and in white sauce.  It's not very much and just provides a slight elusive flavour.  I do enjoy it, but often don't bother with it and I'm just wondering what the purpose of it is?

Is it just a tradition, or does it actually serve some specific purpose?

Is it a little like the ubiquitous teaspoon of vanilla in baking, which is ostensibly to promote other flavours and you usually don't really taste it in the final item?

I think you've answered your own question. It adds an elusive flavor that most people feel enhances the creamy flavors.

I feel people go way overboard with nutmeg in savory dishes. It's trendy, it's chic and they do it because they think it's fancy, but it tastes awful. If you can taste the nutmeg, you put too much in. Don't get me wrong, I can coat custard, or any creamy dessert with a quarter inch of the stuff, and savor every bite. Becasue it goews so well with SUGAR!!! Not butter, not salt and pepper, not savory at all. Sorry, pretentious hipsters who think you know how to cook, it just sucks.


Why is my espresso salty? We've got a fancy espresso machine in our office kitchen. (It's apparently the kind they used to use at Starbucks stores before they switched over to a more automated "point-and-click" type system.) I was trained on how to use the machine by an old pro, and have been successfully making delicious cups of espresso for a few months.

Lately, my espresso tastes distinctly salty.

I haven't changed the process at all. It has happened on a few separate days, with many other people using the machine, so I doubt it is an issue related to the substance used for cleaning the machine (since I believe that would have been flushed out between my attempts). I haven't heard any other complaints from the 50 (or so) other people who use the same beans, grinder, and espresso machine.

It's a mystery to me, but salty coffee is gross, so it's a mystery that needs solving. (My theory is that I've unwittingly altered my method in some tiny way that I haven't noticed, and that has changed the taste of my espresso. I just don't know what that alteration was!)

Edit: I had a thought: This morning, I made a cup that was salty enough that I didn't want to drink it at all. I poured it out and made another from the other basket on the same machine. It was salty, but drinkable. Potential clue?

'nother edit: Yesterday, my coffee was less salty. The only difference in my method was that I rinsed the basket for way longer than I usually do. It still tasted a little bit off (in the salty direction), but not nearly as bad as previous cups.

It could simply be that it's a gustatory illusion!  See my answer to this related question for more explanation.

Edit:

Here is a summary of the relevant information (if you don't want to follow the links):

Human taste receptors don't simply react to how much actual salt there is in a food or drink; our perceived tastes are a fusion of both our gustatory and olfactory senses.  In other words, the smell of a food or drink can affect how it tastes!

There are numerous studies that suggest foods with certain odors can be perceived as much saltier than they actually are.  Coffee has a good amount of oil, there's even more fat if you add cream, and other studies suggest that high fat foods can also increase perceived saltiness.

Sinus issues can cause a salty taste. Early in the day it would be worse than after you’ve been vertical awhile


Getting stains off of a glass top stove I have had a glass top stove for about three years now.  I have two spots that have stained black. The stains look like a patch of burnt food, however they are flat to the surface.  I have tried to use the white ceramic cook top stuff you can buy (to no avail).  I have tried to scrape it off with a razor (also to no avail, and this is why I know that it is flat to the surface of the stove).  Any ideas?

First of all, razor on glass is a bad idea.  I hope I don't have to explain why.  Just think about what you're doing there.

You definitely did the right thing by buying the cooktop cleaner (I assume you used Cerama-Bryte or some similar product), but that's only half the equation; if you just use a cloth or paper towel with that, you won't get good results.  There's a product called a "Scrunge" that's specifically designed for cleaning (scrubbing) glass cook tops.  Use that with the cleaning solution and it can clean almost anything off.

With a little bit of elbow grease (okay, a lot of elbow grease) I managed to clean off over a year of caked-on grease and charcoal around the burner rings that I was never able to get with the Cerama-Bryte alone.  I don't want this to sound like a product endorsement as there may be other, similar kinds of specialized "sponges" on the market, but this is the only one I know of that's safe to use on glass (i.e. won't scratch it like a scouring pad or those double-sided 3M sponges).

You can also try baking soda.  Make a concentrated paste (say 3 parts baking soda to 1 part water) and scrub it in as hard as you can.  This is often enough to clean by itself, but if that fails...

Finally, you can use the baking soda/vinegar track.  Use roughly equal parts of each but don't mix them in advance.  Instead, pour vinegar onto the stain and sprinkle on the baking soda afterward, or vice versa, and scrub right away while it's fizzing.  That will usually dissolve anything under it.

toilet bowl cleaner and an SOS pad will take everything off.


Why should or shouldn't I peel button mushrooms? I've peeled my button mushrooms since cooking with a friend once, who did it, but I've never understood why, if at all, it's advisable.

Searching shows a fairly wide range of opinions but I see no reason attached to either side.

Is it purely aesthetic?

The only motivation I'm aware of for peeling button mushrooms other than wanting a very clean, white appearance is to remove dirt, dust, grit, compost, etc. from the surface without the trouble of brushing or washing. It's arguably quicker to peel mushrooms than to brush them (though not in my experience) and many people don't like washing them because they absorb a little bit of the water, which is counter-productive when e.g. sauteing. However, peeling them means you are wasting some of your ingredients, and even a very dirty button mushroom is trivial to clean by washing or brushing.

I rarely find it necessary to clean supermarket mushrooms at all as they tend to be very clean on the shelf. If they're dusty, a gentle pat with a clean, damp sponge does the trick. I would advise against peeling unless you're going for a specific visual presentation that requires it.

See also: How to clean mushrooms?

I always peel my mushrooms if purchased from the bulk department. Just watch the other store patrons sneeze,cough, hack over the produce and you will become a peeler too.


Would a cast iron pot work well for chili? If so, why? Is there anything to the cliched image of the big ol' cast iron pot filled with fiery chili?

We have some cast-iron skillets and love them, but I've heard that you're not supposed to cook tomatoes (possibly because they're acidic?) and beans (I have no idea why) in cast iron. I have a 3-quart pot I'm thinking about using as a test.

Does properly seasoned cast iron flavor the chili any differently? (I assume not, but anything else you cooked in that pot would taste faintly of chili.)
Does cast iron perhaps allow the pot to heat more evenly?
Would you season such a pot differently, or simply season it the way one would season any cast iron cookware?

I believe that the "clichéd image" you refer to is popular (and cliché) because of chili con carne's long history of being cooked outdoors in big cauldrons or at least over an open flame. As any camper will tell you, iron is the traditional material of choice when cooking with fire.

As for what actually happens - cast iron is a porous material, unlike stainless steel or aluminum.  The seasoning in cast iron is essentially a layer of baked-in grease that fills those pores and over time absorbs the flavor of everything you cook in it.  It absolutely does impart a characteristic flavour, but what that flavour is depends to no small degree on what's been cooked in it before.  If you don't care properly for your cast iron, that flavour might very well be rancid fat.  So whether or not the flavour you get with your chili makes it better, worse, or just different is largely a matter of personal taste and habits.

As for the acidity: Yes, acids can react with the iron, but cast iron is fairly corrosion resistant.  Cast iron is also used for pipes, so this is pretty well-documented by engineers; you need a pH of 4.3 or less to corrode cast iron to any significant degree.  Pure tomato juice is not a strong acid; it has a pH of anywhere between 4.1 and 4.6, which is just at the threshold; when you consider that this is being diluted with tomato purée, water, meat juices, and various other lower-acid substances, it's evident that you're well within normal tolerances and can cook chili and other tomato products for as long as you like.

Also, the seasoning itself provides some measure of protection for higher-acid foods, since the acid has to penetrate the grease, and water is not good at penetrating fat - that's why food rarely sticks to well-seasoned cast iron.

Now this is not to say that the iron won't react at all, it just won't noticeably corrode or make your sauce/chili taste like metal.  Consensus seems to be that you'll end up with up to 5 mg of iron for every 3 oz of tomato sauce, which comes out to about 160 mg for the whole 3 quarts.  That's not good for you if you eat it all at once, but toxicity doesn't happen until you hit 45 mg or so every day for a prolonged period of time, so unless you're eating an entire quart/litre of chili or tomato sauce a day, it's not going to be a health hazard.

So don't fill your cast iron pot with lemon juice or dump half a cup of vinegar in there - but don't worry about a few tomatoes either.  If anything, it just improves the nutritional content.

As far as heat distribution is concerned, cast iron really does not heat very evenly.  It's far more prone to hot spots than reasonably-priced aluminum- or copper-bonded stainless steel.  What it does do is retain heat very well, so it's excellent at maintaining just the right simmering temperature for something like chili, which you would otherwise need some fairly expensive stainless steel to achieve.  But you have to be very careful of scorching when you cook chili in cast iron; stir often.  A few times I've left my cast iron chili pot sitting around unattended for just a little too long and found some of the meat stuck to the bottom.

Last but not least is the seasoning and the answer is no, you wouldn't season it any differently.  As I alluded to above, the seasoning really doesn't have much an effect when you're cooking a sauce or stew as opposed to a piece of meat or something else that has a tendency to stick.  The only function it really has here is to impart a tiny bit of flavour and insulate the iron from some of the acidity of the tomato juices, which isn't necessary anyway.

All in all, I find cast iron to be very good for chili and other stews primarily because of its heat stability, but it's no panacea, and if you're only using the pot for chili then you won't get many of the benefits (in particular the beautiful "black" seasoning that accumulates after hundreds of rounds of greasing and cooking).  So by all means use your existing cast iron for chili and stews, but I wouldn't recommend for anybody to run out and buy a cast iron pot just for that purpose.

Should be fine. Just make sure you clean the pot of any 'rust like' oxidization before you start cooking..


Which method of killing the lobster would cause the least pain and distress? The most common way of killing a lobster is to put it into boiling water, however we can read on Wikipedia page that it is one of the methods which cause pain and distress.

The killing methods most likely to cause pain and distress are:

Placing crustaceans directly into boiling water

Placing crustaceans in slowly heated water to the boiling point

Placing marine crustaceans in fresh water

...

Secondly, we can read here about the following study:

Dan Ward, then a grad student at the University of New Hampshire, once hooked an electrode up to a Lobster heart for me and boiled it. The heart beat for 1 minute 53 seconds.

So the question is, what is the most humane way to kill a lobster?

Put the lobster in the freezer for about 30 minutes, it will basically be in a sleeping/coma state when you take it out. Then cut into its head lengthwise to destroy its brain before it wakes up.

Some people say that killing the lobster in a less stressful way gives the meat a better texture/flavor. But personally I have not been able to tell any difference.

EDIT: Another solution, though not a clean or popular method for lobster; If you destroy its brain faster than the speed pain travels through nerves, it would be dead before the pain reaches the brain. Could be accomplished by shooting it in the brain with a gun... a common method used to humanely kill many things.

I know Mom loves lobster and she swears by Steaming lobster.  It was also the preferred method when I worked at a very popular Restaurant Chain.

Mom would start with warm water in the bottom of a pot.  Then she put the lobster in on a rack to hold it clear of the water.  Then she increased the heat, Pot uncovered, and timed it for something like 10 minutes after water came to a boil (putting the lid on the pot).  She claimed the slower rise in heat knocked it out.  All I know is the the lobster usually stopped moving when the first bubble formed and it never thrashed violently.

I can't be sure when exactly it died and whether it felt pain, but it seemed way better than just dropping it in boiling water.


Why did flatbread dominate the Middle East but Europe adopted raised breads? This may be a history question so please move it if appropriate.

Culturally, local ingredients dominate cooking recipes and national dishes (e.g., soy in SE Asia), but why do Europeans add a raising agent to bread items to make loaf bread whilst people from the Middle East still favour flat breads?

Were raising agents discovered in Europe and never migrated?  Is there a taste difference?

I'm going to agree with Szczerzo about this being an anthropologic question, but I'm going to disagree about the cause.  While nomadic lifestyles was an influence, it's not causative.

I'm also going to ignore the distinction made about raising agents in the OP, because it's factually incorrect; most Arab/Levantine/Turkish/Kurdish breads use yeast.  Instead, I'm going to answer the distinction between loaf bread and flatbread.

Specifically: loaf bread is an aberration, not flatbread.  You find flatbreads around the world in every society that has access to any kind of grain anywhere.  Europe, Asia, Africa, Americas, Malaysia, everywhere.  Some are raised (yeasted) and some are not.  Some are filled and some are not.  All grains are used: wheat, barley, millet, rice, lentils, corn, etc.

Whereas: loaf bread pretty much only shows up in Egypt (and nearby) and in Europe, and there's good reason to believe that the latter two regions learned it from Egypt.  Thing is, loaf bread requires several different things to be easily and cheaply available in the same place:

Wheat or barley (high-gluten flours)
Ability to build brick, stone, or earthen ovens (this is where nomadism isn't compatible)
Ability to cultivate starters (both the right grains and the right weather)
Inexpensive, but hot, fuel for ovens (e.g. wood)

This combination simply didn't happen in too many places; either people lacked suitable grains, lacked cheap fuel, didn't build ovens, or simply never got started (the Babylonians appear to only have made flatbread, for example, despite having all the right ingredients and tools).

So it's really not so much a question of "why did X culture only make flatbread" as "why did these three places make loaf bread?"

If you're interested in this, I highly recommend the book Six Thousand Years Of Bread.

Passover has potentially played a large role in the development of a culture that uses unleavened breads more often, starting (as mentioned in Exodus in the Old Testament of the Bible) when Moses led the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage.

Passover is a religious observance among the Jews commemorating the departure of their ancestors from Egypt. They were to eat unleavened bread for seven days each time they had the Passover. The observance was also for the other eleven tribes of the House of Israel (not just the tribe of Judah, known as the Jews).

Deuteronomy 16:3 tells us this about the Passover:

"Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life."

Of course, there are a lot more people in the Middle East than the Jews, and unleavened bread may have plenty of other reasons for being popular—but I'm sure Passover contributes to that (including in cultures that don't celebrate Passover, since they may have been influenced by the food habits of their neighbors, much as those in the USA have been with Mexican food).


Using frozen mince beef I forgot to get my mince beef out of the freezer to cook tonight, so it's still frozen...Can I cook it straight from frozen or does it need to fully defrost?

You can of course try to thaw it in your microwave (if you have one) or in your regular oven on low heat. However, I've never had any problems cooking with frozen ground beef. Just cook it on fairly low-medium heat and scrape off the outer layers as they get thawed. This might be easier and take a shorter amount of time if you manage to split it into smaller chunks before cooking it. Continue scraping, and splitting the big chunk into smaller parts as they thaw. If you use a low enough heat,  the parts you scraped off first won't get burnt either.
Turn the heat up when everything is separated, and fry it. Good luck!

never try to thaw it in microwave or a regular oven. It will change the taste of the beef in a bad way as the protein would get denatured due to sudden change in temperatures.
You might actually thaw it just by keeping it under running water, it would hardly take 10-15 min.


Can you use yeast that is 2 years old if it has never been opened and has been in the freezer Is yeast that is two years old and has never been opened be used

If I were you, I'd do a simple test that determines, how active (= alive) your yeast is.

When you supply yeast with ideal living conditions, you can observe the activity - or lack of - as the yeast bubbles and foams.

For a test, you sprinkle yeast in lukewarm water and check for activity. A detailed description can be found here, for example.

This should give you the answer whether your yeast is still useable or not.

No it wont work. I tried many a times with 2 years old dry yeast and it didnt work at all. Finally I came to the conclusion that old yeasts create more mess and wastage


What techniques or tricks make soft, flaky pastries instead of leathery ones? These are my first experiences with the lovely pastry, puff pastry.

 I loved it so much that I'd bake more and more of it everyday. The only problem I encountered is that my pastries had a tough crust and they'are somehow leathery, having a tough, hard texture. After a day, it's unpalatable. What techniques or tricks make puff pastry soft, flaky instead of leathery? Please tell me about your own experiences too.

Note: Left picture is Sunny-Side-Up Apricot Pastries – Michel Richard. Right picture is Puff Pastry – Michel Richard and I think the amounts are a little off since one cup of water is not enough at all for that much flour.

There are two ways that I make puff pastry. The first is Rough Puff Pastry which is a quicker way to make puff pastry and you get about 75% of the rise you get with normal puff pastry.

Here is a link for a Rough Puff Pastry that I use. I'd say that the most important tips to take from that recipe is that the butter must be cold when you start and make sure you're using really cold water to mix in. Using a knife instead of your hands is also a good idea to stop your hands melting the butter too much - you want to see the pieces of butter in your pastry. Making sure you chill the pastry after folding for an hour or as long as you can.

Secondly, to make 'real' puff pastry, you need to have to plan in advance as it is going to require a lot of chilling. Firstly, make your dough separately, roll in a ball and chill overnight. Then roll out your butter and make sure you then chill the rolled out butter again. You then continue with the folding and chilling as before. Again, the most important thing here is to chill for at least an hour in between the folds. This ensures that the layers of butter and pastry build up, and that is what gives you the best rise and the flakes you are after. Here is a good recipe that I use with lots of other tips and tricks in.

From looking at your pictures, in my opinion, the 'leatheriness' you are seeing looks like the pastry is a little under baked. The 'tough crust' looks to me like there aren't many layers of butter towards to the top of your pastry which is why it hasn't puffed out when it's been baked. Definitely try following one of the above recipes - if only to get the technique right - and go from there. I definitely find the trick is lots of chilling and keep everything cold! I sometimes even chill the flour!!

Go to the supermarket and just buy a pack of filo pastry sheets. Filo pastry if applied properly will definitely make it flaky and soft.


To salt or not salt broth for use in recipes? Many recipes call broth, but broth recipes often omit salt and pepper or in some instances require only a small amount.

My question is this: when a recipe, let's say risotto for example, calls for broth, should I season the broth with salt and pepper before ladling it into my risotto? Or should I leave it unseasoned and just season the risotto? Or both? Or does it depend on the recipe?

It depends upon how much you expect the broth to be reduced while making the dish, and how salty the other ingredients in the dish are. Risotto is a good example of a dish that should be made with a broth less salty than would be ideal for just drinking. The broth will be reduced significantly while making the risotto (so the salt will become more concentrated). Plus, most risotto recipes call for parmesan, which is salty. You want some salt in the broth because the rice will be better if it absorbs some salt, adding salt at the end with the parmesan can't make up for the rice being made without any salt.

In most cases, it's best to salt broth minimally for cooking. In other words, use enough salt so that the broth isn't terribly bland when tasted alone, but less salt than you would want in chicken noodle soup.

Canned "reduced sodium" broth hits that pretty well, although it can still be somewhat too salty for some applications. The most well known brand in the USA of reduced sodium chicken broth is Swanson. It contains 570mg of sodium per 1 cup of broth. So, every cup of that broth contains 1.4 grams of salt (salt is 40% sodium by weight). So, if you make broth that you might use in a number of different ways, I would recommend about 1 gram of salt per cup of broth. That's enough salt to permeate starchy ingredients without fear of broth reduction making the final dish too salty.

After that, just salt to taste at the end.

I wouldn't add salt and broth. For risotto, just the broth. You can always add more salt after the dish is prepared, if when tasting it you think it needs more. Sauerkraut and some cured meats are made with a large amount of salt, for preservative purposes. Using the risotto example, salt basically just adds flavor.


How do you make Yorkshire Puddings rise reliably? Has anyone got a foolproof method for Yorkshire Puddings? With the recipe I have they never seem to rise properly.

While using a hot oven and keeping the tin hot while filling are both critical elements, equal concern needs to be taken with making sure that your batter is at room temperature.
If the eggs and milk aren't room temp to even slightly warm, then it will take a significant amount of heat to simply warm the batter in the pan before significant steam can build for their expansion.
You can warm eggs quickly by placing the whole egg (in shell) in a bowl and covering with hot water from the tap.  Let it sit for 5-10 minutes and you'll have room temperature/warm egg.  Milk can simply be microwaved to only slightly warm (not hot, or you'll cook the eggs).
You might also try using bread flour.  Here in the south all-purpose flour has a lower gluten content than most other all-purpose flour in the US and it's also bleached to weaken the gluten content that's there.  I've recommended to guests of mine that have had issues with popovers not rising that they try bread flour and I've heard positive responses following the use of bread flour. Bread flour will also have a bit more flavor and produce more browning from the additional protein.

I use one cup plain flour, 3/4 cup of milk, 2 eggs, salt & pepper, then approx 3/4 cup water depends consistency of batter, use hand whisk, leave to stand at least hour, heat tin with lard until smoking (I use 12 tray but works bigger tins too) this recipe works brilliant everybody loves them, about 200 oven approx 20 mins.


How to fix a sauce with overheated yogurt that has separated? I was trying out some healthier recipes from the New American Plate cookbook, one was a Greek lamb casserole with lots of green beans and potatoes. The lamb was marinated in plain yogurt to which spices were added prior to being added to the pot and baked at 350 for 45 min. The flavor is good, but it is not attractive due to the yogurt separating into a grainy curds and whey.

I now have a lot of leftovers, and am thinking if I can fix the texture of the sauce, the kids would be more enthusiastic about eating it. Is there anything to salvage this huge pot of tasty food? Thanks.

Did it and rescued it - important extended family meal and I took a curds and whey disaster to a great sauce! I cooked up chicken with its yoghurt base marinade, the yoghurt split. It tastes fine it's just the proteins have changed at high heat and clumped to form curds.

To solve it I:

took a small amount of water (2 tablespoons or so) in a jug and mixed in a couple of teaspoons of cornstarch. I then added this to the sauce. Don't add cornstarch directly or it will just lump.
OPTIONAL: take other sauce ingredients that are meant to be whole (tomatoes in my case) and add 1/2 to sauce
blend to a smooth sauce using stick mixer (careful of hot sauce splashes)
Reduce sauce, if necessary, to thicken sauce on a medium heat stirring frequently
Return chicken to sauce and add the rest of the ingredients.

Serve and eat, and not to self "next time you cook with yoghurt do it slowly on a low heat - DO NOT BOIL"

Take the dish off the heat and let cool for 5 min then take about 1/2 - 1 cup of the sauce out and add the yoghurt slowly , mix well then slowly put back in to your dish then slowly bring back to serving temp.


Is there a reason to not grate cheese ahead of time? Suppose I know that I'm going to eventually end up grating all of my cheese. Is there a reason to not just toss it all into a blender and store it for later? To be more concrete, I'm particularly interested in the answer as it pertains to Parmigiano-Reggiano and Pecorino Romano, both the bonafide sorts and any variations that can be sold under the same name in the United States.

You should only grate cheese as needed, particularly the cheeses you mention.  When you grate cheese you create more surface area.  That is more surface exposed to air and oxidation, which will degrade the flavor and aroma of the cheese.  It is also more prone to drying out further degrading the quality.   The cheeses you mention are best when grated for immediate use, but stored in chunks, wrapped and refrigerated.

No, you can probably even buy freshly grated cheese from your local cheesemonger.


Why does instant coffee have less caffeine? I had gone completely cold-turkey on caffeine for a while due to anxiety issues, and I'm slowly reintroducing caffeine to my diet.  I have read in many places that freeze-dried instant coffee has less caffeine than the equivalent amount of fresh-brewed, but I haven't seen any explanations as to why.  Is it something inherent to the freeze-drying process which causes this change?

And, of course, how much lower is the caffeine content in general?

Caffeine is water soluble, but it takes a bit of time to be absorbed by water.

What determines the caffeine content of a coffee process is how much time it spends with/in water.

For example, a bodum French press will pick up more caffeine from the coffee since the grounds stay soaked for a while.  Drip coffee will have more than a single espresso (common misconception is to think the opposite).

It's likely that the instant coffee process passes the water through the coffee under pressure and faster than drip.  This will naturally prevent the caffeine to be absorbed in water as much.

Besides using decaf roast, what you may wish to do is get an americano coffee made with one or two Ristretto shots of espresso.  A Ristretto shot is usually pull away after 10 seconds.

Take a look at this analysis from the Mayo Clinic for the actual Caffeine values.

The caffeine content is also dependent on how long the coffee steeps. So, since it is instant, it will have less time to create more caffeine. Unless you have VERY hot water and let the instant coffee steep for a long time :p which may be gross.


Making pork pernil, and had a slight "lasagna battery" issue - is it safe to eat? I am in the process of making the cook's illustrated recipe for pork pernil. For the first hour, you heat marinated pork at 450, covered tightly in a roasting pan with aluminum foil.

Lo, pulling it out of the oven I see several tiny spots where the aluminum foil has been eaten away. The edges are black-ish, which suggests galvanic corrosion, what's commonly called a "lasagna battery" or "lasagna cell" - the results of 2 metals sandwiching a piece of food that is acidic. I was using a stainless steel roasting pan, and basic aluminum foil.

The spots are tiny, and they're shotgunned all over the top of the pork. They're very small, and they're in several clusters, but overall MOST of the pork wasn't impacted. It would be difficult to scrape it off because it is so small. This is a huge cut of meat, and I'd hate to throw it out, but I don't know if the galvanic reaction can do any other damage.

So, is it safe to eat?

The best authoritative answer I could find specifically concerning the food safety was from a chemistry professor and science columnist.  According to him, there is no known danger from consuming food that has fallen victim to the 'lasagna battery' effect.

Personally, I have had this happen numerous times and served and eaten the offending food with no perceived effects.

Yes... very safe to eat. All meats and many of the wonderful condiments we cook with contain acids that help not only with the flavoring but also helps in breaking down the meats to tenderize them. Occasionally, you will get a "burn through"or small acid bubbles forming on the aluminum foil due to its thinness. The heat from the oven also acts as a catalyst.

For the most part, you are safe. It wont make you sick nor will it taint the rest of the meats. Most folks just don't like the idea of eating it! But it won't hurt you. Don't think that the FDA  wouldn't jump at the idea of going after the manufacturers if it was harmful.
Recommendation..... Use a heavy plastic film or heavy duty saran wrap first to cover the pan, then go over that with the aluminum foil. The plastic wrap can withstand temps over 350 f.  without meltingand it will prevent the foil from dissolving!


Calories in toast vs bread Does toasting bread change the amount of calories in the bread?
i.e Does a slice of toast have more/less calories that a slice of bread?

I know that some moisture is lost in the toasting process but does the browning of the bread change its characteristics in such a way that it changes the calories?

If you are interested in the theory, the answer is yes, there is a change. If you are interested in dieting, the answer is still yes, but it is quite irrelevant to you.

There are two types of browning reactions, Maillard and caramelization. Both start with highly complicated molecules and end with different kinds of highly complicated molecules. For a very precise answer to your question, one would have to know every possible chemical reaction occuring there, the energy trapped in the precursors and in the resulting molecules, and whether this energy is accessible for the human body (e.g. there is quite a lot of energy in raw petrol, but your body can't extract it if you happen to eat it). As these reactions haven't been studied in this level of detail, it isn't possible to give you a really precise answer.

On the other hand, the tendency would be for the calories (at least the digestible ones) to fall somewhat. First, the calories from amino acids and carbohydrates (which are the inputs for browning) are digestible; some of the reaction products can be digestible, but not all will be. Second, some of the calories will literally disappear in thin air - because some of the products of these reactions are volatile.

But if you are expecting to reduce your dietary calorie intake by eating toasted bread, it will probably make no difference at all. First, the calorie-reducing effects will only occur for a small part of the molecules involved. Second, and more important: even if it did occur for all molecules involved, browning only happens on the surface (theoretically, it could happen on the inside too, if you heated it in the 154°C - 190°C range. Practically, if you are doing that, nobody will want to eat that food). The surface is quite small as opposed to the rest - let's assume a slice with 1 cm thickness and a generous browning of 0.5 milimeter depth. (I know that the part which gets hard is thicker, but it doesn't really get browner). I'll disregard the surface enlargment caused by leavened-bubbles in the crumb (because I'm afraid I might end up with an infinite fractal surface :) ) and then we have ~10% of the slice browned. As I said, there is no chance that all the calories in this part disappear completely, and I doubt that the reduction will be really significant. But even if it was at really high 50%, you only get 5% reduction in total, or 10 calories per slice of white bread, less for diet-friendly breads (and this number is just an inflated best-case guess).

I think that by Toasting the bread, you are reducing the calories of the piece of bread, from 110 to 30, my doctor suggests i do it for my personal health and the health of others, the more you toast bread, the more you can eat :D

You know the black on the bread from toast, those are all burned calories.


Why remove the skin and seeds of a tomato? Many recipes ask for peeled and seeded tomatoes, which I find both wasteful and too hard work.

What is the point of removing seeds and skin of tomatoes? Just texture and presentation?
Or can it actually change the food's taste?

Texture is the main reason, but if you're going to be blending the sauce, there can be off-flavors from cracking open the seeds.  Even if you don't blend it, they can be these slippery little things that I never much liked growing up.

To reduce the amount of waste, you can :

cook the sauce, then put it through a food mill to strip out the seeds and skins, thus keeping you from wasting the gel around the seeds.
freeze the peeled skins, to save for when you're next going to be making vegetable stock.
collect the seeds and gel, then put it into a muslin bag and hang to let drip to extract 'tomato water'.  (you typically use crushed tomatoes for this ... I don't know for sure if the gel will go through the muslin).  Tomato water is strange as it gives good tomato flavor, without the red color.

Presentation and texture...Imagine a reduced tomato sauce with all the seeds of all the tomatoes you started with swimming around in there. It'd be some very strange spaghetti sauce. Additionally the goop around the seeds is mostly water and no flavor.


How long does it take for milk to spoil unrefrigerated? A half gallon of milk (in the paper carton, not plastic) got left in the car for 1.5 hours in about 80 degree (~27 °C) weather (evening so no direct sunlight). Is it still probably safe to eat if one has a strong stomach or pretty risky? Any particular signs to watch for to indicate it is no longer safe? Carton bulging? Off smell? Etc? How quickly will milk spoil (unopened) in warm summer weather like that?

I don't think anything will be wrong with that milk.

If it's fresh milk, which I doubt, you should consume it in less than three days.
If it's pasteurized milk, which is much more likely, it'll be unaffected.

Signs of spoilage are a sour smell and sour taste. You should make a habit of always smelling your milk (food) before drinking (eating) it. If it doesn't smell like you'd expect, taste it. If it doesn't taste like you'd expect, ditch it.

Milk is cultivated with lactobacillus, a bacteria that's beneficial for us. So, even though milk may taste sour, it doesn't mean that it's undrinkable. In Holland, there's sour-milk (karnemelk), that some people consume (I don't like it, myself).

Under the right circumstances, milk will turn into yogurt, thanks to the lactobacillus...

At any rate, if in doubt, throw it out.

Milk, being left out that first time takes quite a long time to go sour. But put it back in the refrigerator after being left out for a long time and take it out again, and it will go sour very quickly.
In other words, it can be left out 'once'...but not twice.


Leaves that fall off Brussels Sprouts, any reason not to cook? A lot of recipes recommend removing the outer leaves from Brussels Sprouts.

I understand why'd you remove brown or damaged leaves but I've always thought the leaves that just fall off are perfectly fine to eat.

Any advice appreciated.

The ones that fall off because you've accidentally trimmed off too much stem are fine to cook, although likely to overcook when treated the same as full size sprouts.

finely chop some bacon and toss in the pan. When bacon is about finished toss in the extra leaves to cook down sightly.  Not the healthiest of servings but a fantastic flavor! Or mince bacon and leaves and ad to a dip for a festive holiday piece of happiness.


Will hard boiled eggs absorb salt through the shell? In this America's Test Kitchen video they add salt to the cold water when hard boiling eggs.

Would the salt actually permeate the shell and flavor the egg? That seems unlikely to me and is just a waste of good salt.

(Apart from the salt, that method is not new to me. My old, Mom-gave-it-to-me-when-I-got-my-first-apartment Betty Crocker cookbook has the same instructions.)

Salt or acid is often added to the water when boiling eggs to denature egg whites faster should there be a crack and a leak.

I have not read anything that experiments whether this is effective. It also sounds like "don't wash mushrooms" or "pasta must be cooked in a ton of water" kind of old wives tales.

I boil my eggs medium and salt the eggs while hot and put them into the fridge.  I do this because I believe it penetrates the shell, gives flavor and magnesium that I believe helps my bones :)


Why are red wine glasses wider than white wine glasses? I understand that one of the important aspects of a wine glass is that it has smaller opening at the top, which is going to help concentrate the aromas.

But why are glasses for red wine generally wider than those for white wine?

Also are there any reasons for white wine glasses to be narrow?

Summary of the question is really; why have two different sizes for wine glasses?

As baka has said, more volatile components of the wine will be released with more wine surface exposed.

Also, this not only releases aroma but also helps the wine to "breathe" and oxidize, which is why you open the red wine bottle half an hour before serving it (so that this process starts), and why you might pour the wine into a decanter.

This process accentuates the flavors and aromas of the wine. It is not very much necessary with younger, colder served wines (e.g. vinho verde).

In young, sparkling wine, a larger glass will disperse the bubbles faster, as well as warming it. This is undesireable, hence the smaller, narrower glasses.

Aged white wine should behave similarly to aged red wine, although it doesn't need to breathe as much.

From Ilikewine.com

Then there is shape and size of glass. No doubt your scientist will assert that neither size nor shape, neither material nor colour of a
vessel, can affect the tasting of the wine. Well, there are plenty of subtleties in wine which are beyond the reach of scientific analysis. This matter of the vessel is one of them. Drink any
good wine from a thick, white teacup and see
what a difference it makes.. The ideal wineglass,
whether lighter or heavier, should be smooth-
lipped.


How do these flavors of liquid smoke differ? When buying liquid smoke I'm generally faced with a choice of:

Hickory
Apple-tree
Mesquite
Pecan

How do these differ? I'm interested in knowing things that'd help me decide what to pair them with.

Mesquite is a very assertive flavor that typically goes with beef, especially fatty beef.

Pecan and hickory are stronger than apple, but milder than mesquite, and are great for pork or poultry, and work just fine with beef.

Applewood is very flexible, a bit lighter and sweeter. It's the only one of the woods you mentioned that I would consider using with fish.

Ultimately, there's no hard and fast rules - taste things and do what works for you!

Wow!  No one mentions Hickory which is the most often used smoke for Beef and Pork.  Mesquite is typically used for fish and chicken.  Applewood is for fish


Why do yolks break so easily (sometimes)? Separating eggs without breaking the yolk isn't one of those problems that keeps me awake at night. Nevertheless, there are occasions where I can't get a single damn yolk to hold together and other times when I can do anything short of play a round of tennis with 'em.

Could the freshness of the egg determine how likely the yolk is to break? Or maybe the temperature of the egg?

Generally the problem comes not when I crack the egg, but when I start to transfer the yolk from shell to shell.

Yes, the freshness is the factor. In the US eggs are sold in three grades: AA, A, and B (rare). The grading is based primarily on age. AA are the freshest, and B the oldest.

Here is a diagram depicting the internals of an egg:

The characteristics of the freshest eggs are:

A large thick albumen (white)
A small thin albumen
A sturdy thick chalaze
A small air space
A sturdy round yolk when lying flat

As the egg ages the following things happen:

Thick albumen breaks down, getting smaller
Thin albumen gets larger
Chalazae degrades getting thinner and weaker
Air space increases
Yolk membrane weakens, when cracked it lies flatter
Embryo may become visible as a red speck

As a result of the weakening membrane the yolk is indeed easier to break. Michael's suggestion to use your fingers to separate the eggs is spot on. The edge of an egg shell is a little too risky for reliable separation of eggs.

Well, I have been raising chickens for a year and the age of the egg doesn't mean a thing. It is now winter (5 February) and almost all egg yolks break when cracked so I'm saying the cold does it. During the summer, yolks break very seldom.


Why did my sponge cake go moldy so quickly? I made a no-oil sponge cake for a swiss roll. I filled it with fresh whipped cream and then stored the cake in the fridge. It has gone moldy within 4 days of filling it.  Since filling it, it has been stored in the fridge. Why did it go moldy so quickly?

Not sure exact fridge temp and it was stored in a plastic rubbermaid covered container. but I think oil does have something to do with it since other cakes with butter such as pound cake does not grow moldy so quickly.

Oil acts as a preservative which slows down the growth of mould in the cake. Because you've removed a preservative, the bacteria grows at it's normal pace. Chilling it slows it down, but not as much as the oil would.

When I make bread I tend to put honey in it as this is a natural preservative and this works for me, gets another day out of the bread.


How to Replace Icing Sugar in a No-Bake Cheesecake Are there any good substitutes for sugar in Cheesecakes? I am not interested in synthetic sugar like Aspartame. I want to use natural sugar substitute like honey. But if mix honey into the cheese (e.g: Philadelphia cheese), will it ruin the cheese cake. I don't mind getting the honey taste in the cake, but will I get the same consistency in the cheese compare to if I mix sugar into the cheese?

This is the recipe. I got it from www.recipify.com:

250 gr of digestive biscuit/biscotti

80 gr butter

80 gr Philadelphia cheese

5 table spoon of Nutella

4 tablespoon of icing sugar

400 gr of creme

Melt the butter in the sauce pan.
Crumble the biscuit, and pour the melted button onto it. Cool it in the fridge for half an hour.
Mix the Philadelphia cheese with the icing sugar. Once you have done that, mix the Nutella.
Whisk the creme. Combine it with Nutella and Philadelphia mixture.
Put everything onto the crumbed biscuit. Leave it in the fridge overnight.

Thanks

Can you make cheesecake with honey instead of sugar? Sure!

Is it as simple as just replacing it 1:1? Not quite, there's increased moisture, but check the top answer here.

You'll need to reduce any liquid you might be adding a bit.  Without seeing your exact recipe, I can't give you an exact answer there.

Whoa. Whoa. Whoa....thats not cheesecake, thats no-bake 'cheesecake'. And that's not normal sugar, that's icing sugar.

No bake 'cheesecake' is much more forgiving about the ingredients - you'd not trying to set a custard like, you just want a thick, flavored, semi-firm pie filling.  Add the honey, but leave off a touch of the creme, maybe 20-30 g overall?  Icing sugar will actually thicken it a bit as its not only not a liquid, but its also got cornstarch in it.  There's about 1/4 tsp of cornstarch in that much icing sugar, so I'd add that.  If you're against cornstarch, I don't think it'd be the end of the world to leave it off.

I'd add the honey and then add 350 g of creme and see how the consistency is. You'll probably end up adding another 20g or so, but I'd wait and see.

I make 'no bake' Baileys and Chocolate Cheesecake never use the icing sugar - always works for me


Food-safe rotary evaporator grease For those of you who have rotary evaporators or other chemistry glassware in the kitchen, what do you use to grease the ground glass taper/ ball joints so that the lubricant does not either absorb or introduce flavors into the product?

Thus far I have not found anything that is a GRAS food additive marketed as a vacuum grease, but I have found some very expensive fluorinated/ PTFE compounds (Santovac 5GB) that would be insoluble in any food items being run through the system.

Many manufacturers and manuals say that you shouldn't grease them.  However, for parts of the process you may be able to use Taylor ice cream machine lubrication or Vaseline (see below).

Dave Arnold who also runs the Cooking Issues blog, is the king of RotoVap in the kitchen.  There is a full article over here on Dispensery Grade where he discusses RotoVap  in the kitchen.

Here's an excerpt from the comment section of the article:

  What are you using to grease the glass joints (air inlet and vacuum
  take-off)? Regular vacuum grease is probably not a good idea.
  Something like chapstick or shortening? Thanks.

  Reply  Dave A // Dec 12, 2009 at 11:22 am

  Howdy Stephen, We use Taylor ice cream machine lubrication or
  Vaseline.

If you go with vaseline, make sure you get the food-grade version.


Any way to soften gummy candy? Sometimes when I buy (cheap) gummy candy, it's a little too hard to enjoy. Is there a way to soften them? Preferably something that lasts, as opposed to perhaps heating them and eating them while they're warm.

Gummy candy is essentially just water, sugar, gelatin, and a few other additives like food colouring.

Gelatin's gel strength1 is partially dependent on its concentration.  The more concentrated, the harder it gets.  Gummy candies left sitting around will lose water due to evaporation, which makes the gelatin more concentrated and thus harder, and if you watch carefully you'll notice that the moisture loss also makes the gummies shrink.

To soften them, you need to rehydrate them.  Toss them in a bowl of hot or warm water (don't use cold water - gelatin is only soluble in warmer water) until they reach the desired consistency - usually around 20 minutes or so.  The longer you leave them in the water, the more water they'll absorb, the more they'll grow and the softer they'll get.

Try stick a piece of bread in the bag, I use this to soften my cookies