When boiling water without any other ingredients in it, why start from cold? A question about probably the most mundane subject in cooking: boiling water.

For cooking techniques where you drop ingredients in simmering or boiling water - such as for vegetables, pasta, many rice recipes - I have often seen the recommendation that you start by putting cold water into a pot, then bring it to a boil. Why would you not start with hot water from the tap? It's going to be quicker than heating cold water, and your water heater is going to be way more energy efficient than your stove top at heating the stuff.

In particular, is there any physical or chemical process that starting from cold water encourages or prevents from happening?

(To reiterate: in the case where you add stuff to cold water and then start heating it, there clearly is a difference with starting with hot water; this question is about the case where you drop your ingredients in pure water that's already boiling.)

There have been plumbing systems in which the hot water was likely to have dissolved more [toxic|unsightly|unpleasant-tasting] material from the pipe walls or joints than the cold. In particular any system that uses lead-based solder, can leach minute{*}, but detectable amounts of lead into the drinking water, and the hot water is more efficient at this.

In this case that advice amounts to "use the clean water".

{*} Really minute. Like "Use this water all you life and not suffer any ill-effects" minute. But it can be detected, and who wants to chug down a glass of lead solution...

My high-school chemistry teacher claimed that hot water is inferior at storing dissolved gasses, and that hot water has probably been sitting in the plumbing system for some time, so a great deal of the dissolved oxygen gas has been expelled. On the other hand, cold water from the taps is more "fresh" and enriched with oxygen gas. Even after boiling water, the trapped gases will take some time before they escape. So if you start with cold water, whatever you're cooking with the water will become more enriched with oxygen gas than if you started with warm water.

Dissolved oxygen gas = tasty?


What's the difference between Salami and Pepperoni? What is the difference as far as content-pork, beef?

Pepperoni is a variety of Salami. Salami is a dried sausage which can be made of pork, beef, veal, horse, donkey, poultry or game. Different spices, smoking and vegetable ingredients give the different salame their particular taste.

Pepperoni limits its ingredients to beef pork and poultry and belongs to the more spicy varieties of salame.

Salami is meat.  Pepperoni is dried meat.


Are nectarine seeds edible? Eating a nectarine this afternoon, I found the pit was cracked open. Curious, I broke it apart and found an almond-like seed (or nut?) inside.

I remember hearing that some almonds, or perhaps their relatives (stone fruit?), may be poisonous in their natural form. Do nectarines fall into that category? If so, is there some treatment I can give it to destroy the poison (and yet keep it good for food, and a delight to the eyes, and to be desired to make one wise)? Will I surely die?

Don't eat it as-is. It contains cyanide.

Bitter almonds are the definitely poisonous thing you've probably heard of; they contain enough cyanide that just a few could kill a small child (according to On Food and Cooking). The poison is released when the kernels are broken, as defensive mechanism. The variety we eat is a "sweet" safe version which doesn't have cyanide. Other stone fruit kernels are essentially like bitter almonds; the plants are closely related.

Fortunately it's pretty hard to accidentally eat bigger kernels (apricots, peaches, and nectarines) that could carry enough to really be harmful. Smaller things like cherries of course don't contain as much, so it's no big deal if you accidentally swallow some, but you still shouldn't go out of your way to eat them.

The key almond flavor you're familiar with from almond extract is benzaldehyde, a byproduct of the cyanide production - unfortunately the poison and the delicious flavor come together. (The plants actually produce amygdalin, which is then broken down into sugar, benzaldehyde, and hydrogen cyanide.) The extraction of the benzaldehyde is a chemical process that you can't really do at home, so you can't just make almond extract/oil directly from them.

The best general reading article about bitter almonds I found was The Case of the Tasty But Poisonous Nut, from the LA Times in 2002. A few notable parts:

  The lethal dose of raw bitter almonds depends on the size of the nuts, their concentration of amygdalin and the consumer's sensitivity. But scientists estimate that a 150-pound adult might die from eating between 10 and 70 raw nuts, and a child from ingesting just a few.

  Schrade, who studied organic chemistry at Yale, learned that because hydrocyanic acid vanishes into the air when heated, cooking destroys the poison in bitter almonds and allows them to lend their flavor to a wide range of dishes, both traditional and modern.

  The FDA clarified the agency's position recently, saying that it would allow bitter almonds to be shipped interstate to professional chefs and bakers, as long as their dishes were cooked to be nontoxic.

  In any case, although it may be safe for most adults to nibble a raw bitter almond to experience its intense flavor, that would be unpleasant to most people. The nuts are not meant to be eaten as a snack food like regular almonds: They're used as a spice, like nutmeg or cinnamon.

So in summary: it sounds like fully roasting the kernel would make it safe, but since it should be something like a bitter almond, you probably don't want to just eat it like that, but rather incorporate it into something. And of course, I'm still unsure of the exact definition of "fully roasting" for complete safety. Dharini's comment below links to a suggestion that you need 10-15 minutes at 350°F, or possibly less if you've already removed the kernel from the pit, but other (also unreputable) sources I found recommended as much as 20 minutes in a "warm oven" for bitter almonds. Finally, the recipes at the end of the LA Times article are presumably safe, if you want to use them as starting points. (Obviously the risk is lower if you're just trying to eat a single kernel, but I don't want to make any unfounded recommendations.)

I just ate some the other day without even thinking about them; probably not the best thing I ever did, but I am still here. I have no sickly feelings of any kind that I did not already have prior to the eating of the seeds.


What is the orange coloured cream inside McAloo Tikki called and what are its ingredients? The McAloo Tikki:

(McDonalds' official page has a smaller image.)

I have seen the onions, tomatoes, Aloo Tikki, and an orange coloured cream inside this burger.
I wish to know what is that cream called and what are its ingredients?

I cannot speak to its accuracy as I have no experience with this item or McDonald's at all outside the US, but Time In Kitchen in their recipe for a homemade version indicates:

  For sauce, beat hung curd in bowl and add pinch of salt and tomato
  ketchup and mix well to smoothen it in order to avoid any lumps and
  keep it aside

Then again, according to SipputySup, it is "basically Thousand Island dressing)".

This question itself now appears on the 2nd page of google results when searching for "Aloo Tikki sauce" :-)

it is mayonaise,i think.
it's sooooooo tasty and it's the only thing i like about ncallo tikki burger.


Making a test tiny roast If I am making a corned beef and after 10 days I want to taste it and make sure I got the seasoning right. If not I'll fix it and let it soak for another few days.

So I want to cut off a small piece and cook it.  Maybe 4 oz. what would be the best approach for cooking it? Would it follow the normal rules for making a corned beef such as internal temperature which will probably happen pretty fast or does it need a minimum amount of time for some chemical or mechanical processes to happen? Any other ideas?

I make a lot of home cured corned beef so the seasonings are pretty set. When I first started, I didn't try to make a soft tiny roast to test the seasoning, instead I sliced off a thicker slice and cooked in slowly on the stovetop until it was done to my liking then tasted it. I wasn't worried about making it soft and tender when I was testing for seasoning.
One of the best ways to make a roast soft and tender is to use a sous-vide immersion circulator. Set it to your final temperature, let the water heat up,  put the roast in a plastic bag, remove the air and cook until tender. You can find dozens of resources about sous-vide cooking on-line.

What is important with food safety when cooking meat is to get to a specific minimum safe temperature for the meat being cooked.  Sometimes, you must not only reach that temperature, but the meat must also remain at (or above) that point for a period of time to ensure food safety; this is why some meats require a resting period.  While the resting period can also have other benefits, those are out of scope for this question, and will not be addressed here.

The following chart gives a brief overview of the issue you are bringing up, although there are more in-depth details available online, if you should wish to look deeper into the matter.


Sausage grease in fridge I forgot a pan with a little sausage grease in the fridge (1 1/2 to 2 weeks). The pork sausages had peppers, herbs and maybe onions in them, the grease is orange from the chilis and peppers. If I cooked them properly (350 degrees for 40-45 minutes) can the leftover grease have any risk of harbouring botulism? (I'm not going to eat it but would like to know how to I clean it safely). Would recooking the pan kill off any toxins, etc.?

It was a metal baking pan and a knife and fork. I am only worried about botulism and I don't know if normal washing is enough if by chance it was in the fat and whether it would contaminate the sink, etc. I read about bacon fat but wondered if sausages might be different with peppers and maybe onions in them.

Discard the contents of the pan in the trash.

Wash the pan with hot water and soap.

All will be well once you've done this. There is no reason to be concerned about which particular pathogens you tossed in the trash and washed down the drain. You can safely assume it was a few of all of them.

There is very little chance of bacteria with it being in the fridge.  Yes, reheating the pan to a temperature over 175 will kill any bacteria that may exist.


Stopping water from bubbling over when cooking rice Every time I cook brown rice (in a traditional pot, or in my new rice cooker), large bubbles form and spill over the sides. How can I prevent this?

I found this question, but wasn't able to draw useful advice from the answers.

As a side note, I don't think I used too much water - the rice was cooked exactly how I like it in the rice cooker, and there was no water left over. Also, the brown rice was purchased in bulk from a health food store, and was not soaked or rinsed ahead of time.

You've stated that you're not washing the rice.  That's the reason this is happening.

Water boils over because of starch.  Many types of rice (brown rice included) can be very starchy, and this could conceivably cause the water to boil over depending on the amount of rice/water and the size of the pan (or rice cooker).

Washing the rice also helps to prevent the grains from sticking together, so you would want to do this anyway (unless you are actually trying to make sticky rice).

It's very simple to wash the rice; just keep adding and straining out cold water until the water runs clear.  You'll probably be surprised at how much starch actually washes off.  If you do this, your water should stop boiling over - regardless of temperature.

Add a little vinegar to keep rice from foaming over.


What are some good substitions for alcohol in cooking? One of my favorite recipes these days is making a good bananas foster dessert.  Everyone I know enjoys it, to some extent, so it's a go-to dessert, for me.

One of my concerns, however, is that since the recipe calls for rum and banana liqueur, I can't (or at least I choose not to) serve it to anyone too young.  I'm not so concerned with the legal age limit as with serving it to very young children, like a nephew under 10 years old.  The idea is to burn off the alcohol, but I assume there is still some that remains in the dish after it is served.

So what I'm wondering is, what are some good alternatives to alcohol in common dishes?  I obviously won't get the same "flambe" presentation from the bananas foster, but it seems like a small tradeoff when considering I'll be able to serve it to more people.  (I wouldn't make the dessert for my sister, if her son couldn't eat it too)

EDIT: Not to take away from any answers, but I did find a website detailing some common alcohol substitutions

I can't give you a list with good substitutes for common dishes. First, I doubt that my common dishes are your common dishes. Second, it would be too long. If you want to substitute alcohol in a dish, you have to understand what it does in the specific recipe, and then use your imagination to think of an ingredient which will have a similar effect.

Alcohol has mostly three effects in a dish. First, it is a liquid, and its bulk must be considered. In recipes where the ratio is important (mainly batters), if you leave out the alcohol, you have to add some other liquid to maintain the original ratio.

Second, alcohol adds its own taste. A small part of it is the taste of the ethanol itself, but cooks mostly use beverages with a strong taste of their own as a component of the dish.

Third, alcohol is a solvent. It can get more taste out of your other ingredients than pure water. (Ever wondered why vanilla extract is alcohol based?) This is especially important in recipes which give it a longer time to interact with the other ingredients, such as the slow boiling of a coq au vin.

Depending on which of these effects are important to you, you have different options to act.

Just leave it out. If you aren't baking, you probably aren't that interested in the ratio. And if you expect the result to taste well enough without the alcohol, the simplest solution is to skip it.
Use a liquid substitute. This is especially important in baking and confectionery, but you can decide to do it in any case. Depending on the original kind of alcohol and taste you are aiming for, you can use pure water, a liquid trying to stay close to the original taste, or a liquid which gives a completely new taste profile to the whole recipe. For example, in a sweet dish like your foster dessert you can use caramel dissolved in apple juice instead of dark rum if you want to mimic the original, or cherry juice to create a cherry-banana dessert. Common liquids to use are sugared water (when the original recipe had a sweet liquor), a fruit or vegetable juice, a herbal infusion, clear stock, or pickle liquid. Don't be afraid to use more than one liquid to get closer to the effect you want. If the recipe already uses some other liquid, you can just use more of it.
Use a spice or condiment. This is when your main concern is the taste, and you don't care about the missing liquid. Again, you could be trying to mime the original closely (using orange zest instead of Grand Marnier), or just using any strong spice so the dish doesn't become bland. It is up to you. A special case is to use only a taste "essence": for some beverages common in baking, you can buy a propylene-glycol based condiment which approximates their aroma. Rum essence is widely available, but I'm quite sure that the whiskey flavored ice cream in the supermarket isn't full of real whiskey.
Leave the alcohol in the recipe (possibly reduced). Obviously impossible in some circumstances, like a wine sauce, but quite feasible in others. You don't have to drown the dessert in rum and flambe it. If you use 20 ml of rum per 1000 g of other ingredients, a child who eats a normal serving (150 g) will consume somewhat less than 1.2 g of ethanol if no alcohol at all is cooked out - and in practice, if the recipe calls for cooking, maybe half of the alcohol will evaporate, and a very young child will probably not eat the whole serving. I don't think that such miniscule amounts are problematic for children.

Of course, you are free to combine these solutions in any way you see fit, depending on which effect(s) of alcohol you are trying to imitate. For example, if a baking recipe calls for 50 ml of calvados, use 15 ml of calvados, 35 ml of apple juice, and a breath of powdered cinnamon. Or baste a roast with a mix of tomato and carrot juice instead of red wine. The possibilities are endless, you just have to be clear on why you are choosing whatever you are choosing.

You can try using orange juice instead of alcohol. I tried it before and wasn't bad :)


How do you remove strong garlic odor from enclosed space (garage)? I dehydrated garlic in my garage a couple of days ago and now I need to remove the strong garlic odor in the garage -- any ideas?

I have left the garage door open for hours and have run the dehydrator with a bowl of white vinegar.

When you see advice to eat lemon, apples, or milk to eliminate garlic breath, it's the polyphenols in those things that break down the compounds in garlic that cause the smell. Tea, both green and black, is high in polyphenols. Try putting some strong green tea in a misting-type spray bottle and treating the air and the surfaces.

Park your car in the garage, the steel of the car will electrically attract the garlic odor.


What's the fastest way to cook oatmeal porridge? I often eat porridge for breakfast, and the way I've been cooking it is by adding oats & milk/water to a bowl, putting it in the microwave until it boils, and waiting for it to cool.

The problem with this method is that the whole process takes 20-25 minutes, mostly due to the time taken for everything to cool down to a level that doesn't scald my moth.

Unfortunately this amount of time is often unacceptable in the mornings.  Is there an alternative way that is faster?  I could shave a few minutes by adding boiling water to dry oats, but there is still 15-20 minutes to wait for everything to cool.

For my daughters, I usually have a speedy porridge process that goes like this:

Oats, sugar and water to cover (we don't use milk, but it would be the same) in the bowl.
About 3 minutes in the microwave, just to boiling point.
This makes a fairly thick porridge, which is stirred for a minute to let steam out.
Drop an ice cube into the bowl and stir until it's gone.

Voila, edibly warm porridge that isn't scalding hot.

The whole thing takes about five minutes, and for the three of those that the bowl is in the microwave you can do other things.

Oatmeal, like many foods, cooks faster in a pressure cooker.

To cool quickly, place near a fan to speed the diffusion of heat.


What is the purpose of sifting dry ingredients? What is the purpose of sifting dry ingredients (esp. with flour)?

I heard in one place that it was because this is the best way to mix them well. I heard somewhere else that this is a carry-over from when flour used to still contain some chaff. What's the real reason? When does one still need to do this?

Fix Compacted Flour. Flour will compact over time (and during shipment). You could sift the flour to fluff it back up. Or, you could just stir it before measuring and be sure to spoon the flour into your measuring cup in order to get a correct volume measurement.

Remove Unwanted Material. Yes, sifting would also remove larger pieces or bits of chaff. It would also remove insects. However, neither of these are problems with modern store-bought flour. If you grind your own flour (my sister-in-law does this), then you may still want to sift it, though.

Mix Ingredients Together. Sifting can also be used to mix other dry ingredients into flour. I bake quite a bit, though, and I've never had a problem with just using a spoon or whisk to mix dry ingredients together.

In summary: don't bother. Just use good measuring techniques and stir your ingredients together well. No one likes a lump of baking powder lurking in a muffin!

To remove all dirt particles such as microbes from the dry ingredients


Impastata Ricotta for Cannoli I have been trying to make homemade cannoli filling, but I can not find Impastata Ricotta anywhere. I have tried using regular Ricotta, leaving it to drain in a cheesecloth overnight and then food processes it, and I've also tried with powdered sugar but it is very runny, and very little moisture comes out in the cheesecloth.

Does anyone know:

How to make Impastata Ricotta?
Where I can buy it in Phoenix, AZ
How to treat regular Ricotta so it is similar to impastata? And also which brand to start with.

Thanks!

I use regular Whole Milk Ricotta. Spread the Ricotta out on 1/2 of a white terry towel. Fold the other half of the towel over the cheese. Smooth it out and let it sit, inverting the folded towel after 15-20 minutes to dry the other side. This the best method to dry Ricotta cheese.

Impestada is best for making Cannoli Filling.  It is considered the Cadillac of Ricotta Cheese.  This is the only cheese I use to make my cannoli filling.  I buy it at a Specialty Farm Store in my neighborhood, where they sell produce and special cheeses from a local cheese farm.  I have tried regular Ricotta that you buy in a supermarket, but never had good luck with it.  Also, if you are anywhere near an Italian Pastry Shop they might be able to get it for you or maybe even sell you some of it for your recipe.


In my new mixer, my bread dough gets wrapped around the kneading hook. What should I do? I just got a new stand mixer - a nice, heavy 500W mixer with a 5-liter bowl.
Until now, I'd been making bread by hand and kneading it on the countertop.

So the first thing I tried was using the mixer with the kneading hook, but I find that the dough tends to get wrapped around the hook and just spins around along with it.

I guess I'm doing something wrong, but I'm not sure if it's my technique or my ingredients. I'm using the same bread recipes as I did before. Any ideas?

Edit:

Thanks for all the input, guys. Here's some more info:

The mixer is a Kenwood KMix KMX-50.
I've tried adjusting the height of the dough hook up and down, I'm not sure how far from the bowl's surface it should be. Any suggestions? I don't think
I doubt it's a volume/quantity issue - I'm using a kilo of flour, which is around the 1.3kg bread weight limit of the spec.
I mix at low speed.

I'll try Sobachatina's suggestion and try to add water. Let's see how it turns out. Thanks for all your suggestions!

I think I finally found a solution, which worked for me:
I started with @monte-hill's notes about how the dough is too wet, causing it to stick, and added something I learned elsewhere.

My mistake was that I was dumping all the liquids into the mixing bowl right at the start.

The best solution I found that works is to GRADUALLY add the liquids. I put a about half plus a bit extra in the bowl at the start, then start the mixer. Once all the fluid has been absorbed, I add the rest. I've tried this a couple of times already, and it's made a complete difference in the results and the process!

Your mixer is not good enough for bread. A good bread mixer has a sprial with a braker bar in the middle, but this is not cheap.


Brie Cheese and expiration date I have a Brie Cheese that has not been opened. It shows an expiration date that is 6 weeks ago. Is it still safe to eat?

Cheese is a durable food, and the date printed on it is more of a best-by date than an expiration date. While brie is rather soft (which is normally a problem because soft cheeses are more welcoming to bacteria), its colonisation by noble mold fills the ecological niche which would be otherwise claimed by pathogens. So, especially if you kept it in the fridge, eating it a few days or weeks after the date printed should not be a problem food safety wise.

As with most mold cheeses, you may find that it has overripened. Overripened mold cheese will have a gooey to liquid core and a somewhat funky smell. It is still safe to eat, but you must decide if the taste is still good enough for you.

Yes you certainly can. Brie is a robust cheese which has no problem aging a few months. I personally ignore use by dates on all cheese products. The older the better and dont worry about a small bit of mold either, just cut it off with the rind. I find use by dates a constant source of endless amusement. What do they think people did before the common body of sense was lost in all but name.


Can chicken not completely cooked then cooled be fully cooked later? I cooked some chicken but didn't realise it hadn't completely cooked through. It then went in the fridge and a day later I cut through it to discover the problem.

Is it now safe to put that chicken in the oven to finish cooking it or am I risking major health issues?

Please don't bother.

Meat spending any significant amount of time in the danger zone of 40 F - 140 F (4.4 C - 60 C) that has not been fully cooked should never be re-chilled to be served later. Given that Salmonella can be found throughout poultry, not just on the surface, and that it's almost guaranteed that your poultry had some level of a pathogen present, you shouldn't risk it.

Your not so thorough cooking, likely to an internal temperature of 120 F - 130 F, has basically heat-shocked the bacteria present imbuing them with a much higher than usual heat resistance. On top of that it likely took at least a few hours to get the meat back below 40 F (at which they can still grow, albeit slowly), so depending on the initial amount of infection and the time spent in the danger zone you likely have a bacteria population minimally in the hundreds of millions, possibly in the billions.

In this answer of mine I give a lot of detail regarding the relation between temperature and duration and it's effect on Salmonella. The important take-away is that with any reasonable temperature death is not instant, it's merely a percentage of the population that is killed at any given temperature and duration. As few as 100,000 Salmonella cells can get you sick, and it takes much fewer for E. Coli. So even if you're killing five-9's worth of bacteria, is it really worth it?

I'm all for eating rare meat (not poultry), but only if I'm confident in the quality and handling of said meat before it reaches my plate. Think of it this way, if the meat were exposed to these conditions before it reached your plate it would be considered gross negligence, and would likely result in a recall.

The guidelines that many agencies publish to safely cook meat all assume typical levels of contamination, given proper handling (though they do err greatly on the side of safety). They simply aren't accurate when you are starting with meat that has a population large enough to sicken or kill a small village.

I'm not even going to begin to address the toxic waste products produced by some pathogens, which are not destroyed by heat.

Throw it out and prevent this in the future by being sure to cook it all the way through. It sounds like you likely just grabbed the chicken out of the refrigerator and threw it directly on the heat, this can lead to the exterior cooking too quickly before the interior has time to cook. Get in the habit of setting your meats out for 30m to an hour so that it reaches room temperature throughout, but cook it immediately, do not re-chill it.

As long as the internal temp hits 165-170, you're fine. That should kill anything that might have grown in between. Chances are it's going to be a bit dry though.


Can I safely thaw and refreeze sorbet? A month ago I made a mango/lime/cilantro sorbet that is delicious.  The problem is I put the sorbet into a quart sized container and it's frozen solid (I keep my freezer very cold).  Can I safely thaw (or partially thaw) the sorbet and put it into popsicle molds and then refreeze the popsicles?  The ingredients are mango, lime juice, cilantro, sugar, and possibly a little water (I can't remember).

The recipe I used was from http://low-cholesterol.food.com/recipe/very-basic-mango-lime-sorbet-224706.  The only thing I changed was I added one bunch of cilantro chopped in the food processor with the mango.  And I used my ice cream maker.

Ingredients

2  lbs mangoes, chopped (frozen is fine)

1⁄2 cup lime juice (fresh is best)

2⁄3 cup sugar (super-fine is recommended)

1  cup water

Directions

Make simple syrup: Add sugar to water in small saucepan. Stir over medium heat until sugar is fully dissolved. Raise heat and bring syrup to a boil; boil one minute, then remove from heat and allow to cool completely.

Puree thawed mango and lime juice in a food processor.

Stir simple syrup into mango puree. Refrigerate a few hours to be certain puree is cool.

Follow the manufacturer's instructions for your ice cream maker at this point. If you don't have one, pour into a pan and put in freezer; pull out every hour and stir (for 3-4 hours).

Sorbet are typically acidic(from the fruit juices) and contain sugar. Both of these act as preservatives in addition to the extremely cold temperatures that sorbets are kept at. So it is perfectly okay to melt your sorbet ice block. However when you melt the sorbet block, you will want to do it slowly. Fruit/herb flavors are very volatile so if the mixture is over heated, the flavoring will break down and the taste will deteriorate.

When refreezing your mixture, you might want to consider adding a little more sugar into the mixture to prevent it from freezing so hard in the future. Sorbet sugar by concentration is usually around 20-30%. If your sorbet is sweet enough, then you may also add a little tasteless alcohol like vodka to prevent the sorbet from freezing too hard.

Yes, thawing sorbet once is not a bad option. The sorbet can remain safe for thawing twice if kept upto two months. I have tried sorbet for 2 and a half months, thawing ones. After that they get damaged/ unhealthy. You can keep your container on warm water for thawing rather than instantly changing the temperature as in microwave or fluctuate in high heat. I usually follow a bit slow method for warming.

Hope this helps.


What is the name of this eggplant dish that is similar to lasagna? When I was at school I made an dish that was like a lasagna but replaced the pastry with Eggplant. It also had sliced bocconcini (I think) and was tomato based.

Just wondering if anyone knows the name of this dish? Is it just an Eggplant lasagna?

In Italian we call it parmigiana.

Wikipedia says:

  Parmigiana or eggplant parmigiana (Italian: melanzane alla parmigiana or parmigiana di melanzane) is a Southern Italian dish made with shallow fried eggplant slices layered with cheese and tomato sauce, then baked. Variations made with breaded meat cutlets, such as veal and chicken parmigiana, have been developed in other countries, usually in areas of Italian immigration.

In Italy, you can find the variation with meatballs, but the original recipe (being from Southern Italy) doesn't include meat.

The Italian dish is called Melanzane Parmigiana


What is the difference between grape and cherry tomatoes? What is the flavor difference between grape and cherry tomatoes? The store had both and they looked rather similar.

The difference in their name is - not surprisingly - because of their form. Cherry tomatoes are round, while grape tomatoes are more oblong. Wikipedia mentions that grape tomatoes are 'sweet as cherry tomatoes', so not much difference in flavour according to this. Perhaps grape tomatoes are more similar to small plum tomatoes.

This site claims grape tomatoes to be sweeter, having a thicker skin and a lower water content than cherry tomatoes. Interestingly, it also says that grape tomatoes are a cross between cherry tomatoes and other tomatoes.

The claims of the second site are in agreement with this site ("grape tomatoes have thicker skin, lower water content and intense sweetness"). It also states "a grape tomato is half the size of a cherry tomato", so perhaps they are smaller. Due to the lower water content, grape tomatoes have less chance of 'squirting' when being bitten into.

Renaming was inevitable once 'cherry' size became golfballs...

Round or oblong 'grape' tomato? I tried a nice golden egg-shaped wee one; more a texture difference than flavor: crispy juicy rather than mealy squishy.

Blessedly more variety these days in tomatoes.
How about pulling aside your supermarket green-grocer and asking for a sample? Not possible with prepackaged punnets but why shop where you can't touch and smell, hmmm?


What do I do with mildly fermented maple syrup? Our organic grade A maple syrup, bought in bulk, has gone slightly fermented in the fridge. If I were still in college, this would be great, but I am a bit older. What do I do with this stuff? Can I assume it is fine in baked goods? How can I accelerate my usage of it?

Yeah, syrup can ferment + convert sugar to alcohol. It has more of a tendency to do so if the sugar content is lower -- I tend to err on the side of overconcentrating my syrup.

You can try boiling it for a while to see if the alcohol boils off + if the flavor is OK then use it... but I'd boil down a bit more first, to make sure the sugar content is back up to standards. Either boil until the boiling point is 7 degrees F higher than the boiling point of water at your altitude, or boil until the syrup "aprons" (e.g. starts to drip in a sheet rather than discrete drops; a flat edge of a metal spatula works well), with the former being more accurate if you have a good thermometer.

If the flavor remains after boiling, then try using in recipes -- perhaps in brownies/blondies or with ice cream.

I think there is WAY too little water and oxygen in maple syrup for a yeast fermentation, so anything that grew in this syrup is probably bacteria or worse. Don't drink it.


Maximum time for rising in a breadmaker I have a Panasonic SD253 breadmaker. The function chart shows 2hr 55min - 4hr 10min rising times available for the French Bake program.  How do I make sure it rises for the full 4hr 10 mins?

Take a peek of the dough every 1/2 hour.

If you see in a certain peek it's lower than the last time you saw it, it has fully risen and is starting to fall.

The dough should be about to reach it's rising limit before it begins to be baked, but not pass it. You can change the dough's rising speed changing the amount of yeast from your recipe, or controlling the dough's temperature, among other ways.

Its down to the volume of yeast you use.

Yeast will continue to rise the bread as long as there is food and the temperature maintains within its required range (45c 115f)

so if you have 1 hour yeast and use 1/4 of the required amount for 1 hour bread, then it will take 4 hours to rise.

http://www.abreadaday.com/?p=1195

see the link above for an example of bread cooked using the no knead 4 hour rise method.


Is there a way to make leafy green vegetables absorb salt throughout their tissue? For example you can make protein tissue absorb salt by brining/dry curing it.  What ways can I make say some spinach or kale tissue absorb salt?  I want the salt to be in and throughout the greens and not just placed on the surface.
Also if there is any penetration, I take it, it is just on the leaf parts and won't go into the stalk?

When the greens are cooked, the cells will rupture and more easily take on outside fluids (and salt), so salting them while cooking will get the salt into the greens. You could also brine or rub the leaves with salt, this is frequently done with cabbage before pickling. The effectiveness of this method will vary depending on the greens though, some leaves like kale have a more waterproof layer over the outside of the leaf, so just rubbing them with salt may not work. I have seen people "massage" the leaves with salt to tenderize them and break down some of the fibers, or blanch them in salted water.

Disregard this answer, it's wrong. See comments of this answer.

If you expose vegetables (or actually pretty much any food) to salt and water is present, a process called osmosis will start.

Osmosis will cause the salt to "go into" your vegetables, as they contain less salt than the brine. It will go on for as long as there is less salt dissolved in the water of the vegetable (or whatever food you are using) than in the brine surrounding it.

However, I am not sure if there are vegetables that will simply get their water drawn out of them because the salt cannot get into the cells of the vegetable. This may or may not be the case, I have personally never tried it.


How do I determine if my mussels are fresh? What texture should fresh mussel have?

Does mushy mussels mean they are bad? What causes this mushy texture: cooking or quality of the mussels?

Assuming your mussels came from clean, unpolluted waters, there is mainly only one thing that determines the quality of mussels:  Freshness.

For all shellfish, this means alive when you buy them and alive when you cook them. Their shells should be tightly closed when you buy them, or they should close when you tap them.

Mushiness doesn't mean much.  Shellfish are kind of mushy in their most perfect condition.

I'm buying the mussels in nurseries, so I am sure of their freshness. Sometimes it happens that some of them are closed, though showing life with serious consequences for the recipe, so I do this: I put in the water, I throw away all those that float, I clean well those remaining, then if I have to open them to check if the smell experience is good, I also assure you that inside there is the mud that the mussel is used to have, made these devices continue with my recipe. I know it takes time but I assure you that after I can enjoy my spaghetti with mussels.
Edit in response to user18923's answer
I repeat, if the mussels float in the water (WHEN YOU WASHING) are definitely throw because it is very likely indeed it is certain that within them there is more water that keeps her alive, so if you want to risk the recipe one is free to do so, but as to the misinformation that you say, I think that actually you never opened more than 10 mussels. I'm not saying that they are not inedible, but it is better throw. I personally eat them raw every week at sea, but I try in every way to eat those that are good for my experience.


Difference in caffeine levels between light and bold coffee? Over the last few years I had come to believe that the roasting process for bold coffees removed caffeine from the beans resulting in a lower caffeine content than compared to a light roasted coffee. I got this idea from Good Eats with Alton brown. Here's the clip where the master roaster makes this point.

However, yesterday's On Point w/ Tom Ashbrook had on a coffee expert that made the opposite claim. Also, comments the page have pointed to sources describing the inconsistency of caffeine levels: Caffeine content by roast level and Does dark roast coffee have less caffeine than light roast?

Searching around on .edu sites I find charts that seem to support the idea that bolder coffees contain more caffeine. The charts show smaller amounts of bold coffee (2-4oz) contain the same amount of caffeine as larger amounts of light roasted coffee (6oz). So, obviously, typical consumption amounts play a role in how much caffeine will be ingested.

Caffeine Charts

http://www.uhs.umich.edu/caffeine#contents
http://www.psychiatry.ufl.edu/aec/research/abstracts/sobpcaffiene.pdf

In the end, I'd like a definitive answer to this question: after roasting which bean contains more caffeine or is the difference negligible? And/or does the brewing method significantly alter the caffeine content?

I believe that the following study provides a definitive answer:

Application of high performance liquid chromatography to the analysis of some non-volatile coffee components

From the abstract:

  High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was applied to the analysis of caffeine, trigonelline, nicotinic acid and sucrose in Arabica and Robusta coffee. Green and roasted coffee samples were used in this study and the degradation of sucrose and trigonelline, with the formation of nicotinic acid, was followed during roasting. Caffeine did not undergo significant degradation with only 5.4% being lost under severe roasting.

Roasting does in fact lower the caffeine content, so bolder coffees will have less caffeine if they come from the exact same bean. But even under the worst conditions, the impact of roasting is trivial compared to the impact of bean selection, brewing method, etc.

What does degrade is sucrose (sugar), which is why heavily-roasted beans tend to taste so bitter (or "bold").

Bottom line: Make your roasting decision based on flavour preference, not caffeine content. Because the effect on caffeine is so small, you really can't compare the caffeine content of light roasts vs. dark roasts categorically unless you have a controlled sample, which you don't unless you're working in a lab.

The boiling point of caffeine is 315 degrees, and most places don't go anywhere near that (about 260 for our darkest roast), and I've yet to find anywhere that actually goes in to detail as to how the caffeine is "lost" during the roasting process. Aside from that, Danny boy totally has the right idea. Dark roast has significantly less weight per bean, so you should still end up with more caffeine in the dark even if the magical caffeine fairies remove caffeine from the beans before boiling point or decomposition. Grind and extraction methods do matter a great deal. Most commercial coffee houses will be using the same brewers on different roasts of coffee using the same grind for the beans, so for generic brewed coffee dark roast will always have slightly more caffeine.


Emulating Starbucks Frappuccino Cream Base At Starbucks, the "Cream Based" (no coffee) frappuccinos all use a proprietary syrup base which I would like to emulate to be able to make a reasonable facsimile at home.

When the baristas make a "Vanilla Bean" frappuccino, the process goes something like this:

Add a measure of whole milk.
Add an appropriate measure of ice.
Add 3 pumps of aforementioned cream base syrup.
Add a few scoops of vanilla flavored powder.
Blend.

The milk/ice ratio I can play with, I've found a replacement for the vanilla powder that works well, but I'm stumped at re-creating the cream flavored syrup, which unfortunately, is absolutely key to getting the right taste and consistency.

I see some folks selling jugs of the stuff on ebay, which I can only assume is pilfered stock because Starbucks does not sell it retail. Fortunately, there are pictures of the ingredients label on the jug, which gives me a good starting point.

The image of the base is below.

The ingredients are listed as:

Water
Sugar
Salt
Natural and Artificial Flavor
Xanthan Gum (E415)
Potassium Sorbate (E202)
Citric Acid (E330)

I would like some suggestions for what kind of cream flavoring I should use to create my own. Whole milk powder? Coffee creamer? Something else?

I can't comment yet...but if I could, I might suggest using or swapping a portion of your sugar for liquid invert sugar, instead of caster or white granulated, in conjunction with the afore mentioned artificial flavorings, and possibly some more milk protien like sodium caseinate.  Invert sugar is often used in candies that must maintain a soft creamy liquid center (like those queen anne cherry bon-bon things), and I think it would positively alter the end-texture.  I bought some in Austin at a local cupcake/candy bakeshop that wasn't very expensive.(www.allinonebakeshop.com call them,  the website doesn't reflect all of the cool products they have).

Hansson et al experimented with different sugar compositions for their beverages and noticed that there was a greater release of specific aromatic compounds using invert sugar. They posited that the glucose-fructose ratio that liquid invert sugar possesses, causes the water molecules to be more structred, thereby decreasing the amount of free water around.  Hyrophillic(water loving) flavors in the mix are then more concentrated in the available free water, waiting to be tasted. The hyrophobic( water-hating/fat loving) flavors like to stick with the fats, so using a very good emulsifuer to effectively distribute/suspend the fats through the rest of the mix will be important for the end flavor profile.
doi:10.1016/S0308-8146(00)00243-0

I might even add some turmeric to your mixture when you heat it (be aware of some yellow color transferrence), since the curcuminoids (bioactive ingredients in the turmeric rhizome/powdered spice) decompose into a few compounds like vanillin and ferulic acid when heated (longer the incubation = more vanillin as a result of its degradation). Here's one research paper doi:10.1016/S0731-7085(96)02024-9 I'm happy to provide additional peer-reviewed sources if desired.

One last thought on flavor additions...if you dont mind artificial, this is a gluten-free butter flavor:  http://www.shanks.com/product-category/extracts-flavors/imitation-butter/  It almost goes without saying, that only a VERY small amount would be needed(maybe a drop or two at most to really round out that creme profile).

Old thread but if anyone is still searching for the key, binging with babish on youtube has a video where he makes the "orange mocha Frappuccino" from a certain movie, which was disgusting, but in the process of making a good tasting drink he showed how to make the Frappuccino base. Xantham gum is in fact crucial. As it says on the label, the last two chemicals are preservatives and absolutely not needed for home made (be glad you don't need them) and "natural and artificial flavors" can be whatever you want...I believe starbucks uses a combination of natural and artificial vanilla flavors. seeing as this thread is so old I doubt anyone will find this but just look for that video on youtube, babish is awesome. xantham gum is a strange powder.


How do I heat up rice and pasta at work? I want to heat up rice or pasta at work so I can have a hot meal with rice and chicken or pasta and chicken. There is a microwave there - can I use that?

To reheat left over rice, microwave is the best!
Put a clean damp (wet but not runny) cloth or paper towel on top of your rice in a microwave safe dish and heat it for 2 minutes. Don't put a lid on top of the dish.

Left over pasta is always gross, no matter how you reheat it. So stick with microwave. If you pasta is not super saucy, same method (with a damp paper towel) would apply to pasta, otherwise, just heat with a lid on.

Put a wet paper towel over the bowl when you put it in the microwave. Works every time


My cast iron has become flaky, did I damage it? So I am quite new to this cast iron thing. After few uses I tried to clean it with kosher salt. Now some parts of it look like it's all flaky, as if the layer will come off if I scratch it with my fingernail. The part is grayish in color. Is it the seasoning that has come off, or have I damaged my pan? How do you really know the difference? I mean, how easy it is to damage a cast iron pan in a way it is no longer useful, and what will that damage look like?

If it's flaking, it wasn't seasoned right to begin with. However it really only matters on the cooking surface. You want seasoning to build up, but it shouldn't flake.

See if it really is coming off, try with you fingernail. If it's coming off then get all of it off that you can by chipping it away. Scrape it off. If it doesn't come off then leave it alone, and season as normal another new layer.

If you aren't happy with it, you can always strip it and start over but that's usually something you end up wishing you hadn't done. You do this by putting your cast iron in the oven and running it through a cleaning cycle. Be warned, don't do this unless you already know what to do and how to season your newly bare cast iron.

Old cast iron seasoning is the best, you don't want to start over. I have some with a 1/4 inch of seasoning (I am exaggerating) on the outside of the pan and it looks crusty, but the inside seasoning and finish is baby skin smooth and slicker than any Teflon coating. I keep it that way by scrubbing lightly with a green scrubby to "tip" the bumps down before putting back in the hot stove to cook another thin layer of oil.

You can't ruin cast iron except by breaking it. Don't worry, it's not ruined, it just needs some care. Some of my best cast iron was a lump of rust I rescued from the junk store.

The flakes are burnt oil. They occur because oil residue has built up in the pores of the pan and when it gets too hot they flake off. Companies who make such pans often deliberately place such oil deposits on the pan to retard corrosion. Also, many cooks will bake on oil to regenerate this oil layer, called "seasoning," as kind of a non-stick surface.

You can recondition the pan by scouring it with Scotch Brite and renewing the seasoning oil.

Personally, I don't mess with seasoning at all because it is a hassle and it can absorb bad odors and bacteria. Corrosion is caused by acids; so long as you keep the pH of the pan basic it will not rust. This can be done by rubbing it with baking soda.


My Russian Teacakes are too crumbly I am making Russian Teacakes.  They have been refrigerated per the recipe for approximately 4 hours.  I cannot roll the Teacakes into balls as the dough is too crumbly.  Help!

In the Russian teacake recipes I have seen, there are four main ingredients:

flour
butter
nuts
powdered sugar

If you cannot get your cookies to bind, you need to add more butter (the only ingredient with moisture). If you are refrigerating your dough, make sure to cover it so it does not dry out.

Your dough is missing liquid. While the recipes frequently don't list any liquid, if it won't come together, you have to add a few drops (!) for it to form a workable ball.

The amount you need is really tiny. I usually take a teaspoon, fill it half, drizzle it in, and knead for several minutes until I have seen a change in the dough. Only if the dough is still tearing instead of sticking after that do I add a second half teaspoon. If you have a pipette handy, that might work even better. Remember, you want to have the least amount of liquid you can get away with, and you can never take out water after you have added it, so go very cautious with it.


Can dry ice in a liquid poison you? I remember hearing a long time ago that putting dry ice into a liquid that is then consumed by people could potentially poison them.  I was just looking at halloween drink recipes and a few of them used dry ice in the liquids that people were drinking.

So, can putting dry ice in a liquid (say, punch) and then drinking that liquid poison you?  Or ws this information wrong?

Please note, I do not mean that the carbon dioxide that's released into the atmosphere can poison you, I mean the physical consumption of the liquid that the dry ice was put in.

No it will not poison you to drink a liquid that is directly cooled by dry ice.  At normal pressures there may be some gaseous CO2 dissolved in the liquid giving it a mild carbonation.  However, dry ice can be dangerous to bare skin, mouth, or GI tissue if someone swallows a medium to large pieces of dry ice.  Small pieces are not poisonous, but can produce an unpleasant popping or tingling sensation in the mouth (like extra tingly PopRocks).  In a process similar to making liquid nitrogen ice cream, dry ice can even be used to make ice cream if it is crushed very finely.

Dry ice will sink to the bottom of a drink "cauldron".  If more cooling is needed, do not add regular ice to the cauldron, instead add it to individual drink glasses.

Some simple rules to remember when working with dry ice:

Do not allow dry ice to come in contact with bare skin or other bodily tissue. Keep the dry ice in its packaging at all times. Dry ice has a temperature of -79°C and direct contact can cause freeze burns. If you must handle dry ice, use gloves or newspaper.
Always handle and store dry ice in well ventilated areas. Carbon dioxide gas is heavier than air. If it is allowed to accumulate in poorly ventilated areas such as boat holds, cellars, cars and vans, it can become a safety hazard, as it will displace oxygen and could lead to asphyxiation. Do not leave coolers in closed vehicles for extended periods and always make sure a window is open. Adequately ventilate areas before entering.
Do not place dry ice in airtight containers such as stoppered glass jars, bottles or other sealed containers as they could explode.
Do not store dry ice in refrigerators or freezers. Store in the best insulated cooler possible.
Do not pack dry ice in direct contact with glass bottles, jars, etc. as the glass could crack and shatter; use non-glass containers.
If the block is to be reduced in size by breaking or cutting, leave it in the packaging provided to avoid contact with skin and eyes.
Do not use dry ice in individual drinks. Use only in large punch bowls for effect. Under no circumstances should dry ice be placed in the mouth.

Dry Ice Safety

Dry Ice Safe Handling Practices

MSDS for Dry Ice

Dry ice is solid carbon dioxide. When dry ice is added to warm water a dense white fog is immediately generated. The white fog is an aerosol of tiny water droplets. Dry ice fog has no odour, contains no chemicals, and leaves no oily residue. You MUST only use food grade dry ice, this is safe to use in food and drinks.

Because dry ice is very cold, it can be dangerous if touched, causing burns. I would not recommend to put dry ice directly into a drink. I would recommend using a special hardware with a cage to stop yourself drinking the dry ice. I've been using these glasses for 3 years and they are great for parties and venues and 100% safe.


Are hardware store themocouples food safe? I recently finished reading The Blue Bottle Craft of Coffee: Growing, Roasting, and Drinking, with Recipes. The authors of this book put a strong emphasis on accurate measurements and measuring tools, both for coffee and baking, and regularly make use of general purpose thermocouples as shown in the excerpt and picture below:

One of the greatest kitchen gadgets you can have is a thermocouple (shown below). A thermocouple is an electronic temperature sensor that can be purchased at the hardware store, and is typically used in science and industry for testing the temperature of ovens and air conditioning. They’re fairly inexpensive, absolutely accurate, and very easy to use and clean. I use mine for verifying my oven temperature and for taking temperature readings on sugar syrups and other temperature-sensitive recipes, such as Homemade Yogurt. It’s an invaluable and extremely accurate tool that is worth investing in for both baking and coffee preparation.

I can see the appeal of these "hardware store" thermocouples, but are they really safe to use in and around food or drinks? None of them claim to be suitable for cooking. Is there a likelihood that they could leave behind undesirable chemicals or metals?

You are correct to be concerned.

In all likelihood, the hardware store thermocouple is not suitable for food use as it would contain metals you don't want to ingest. Here is a table of industrial grade thermocouple materials, note presence of some undesirable metals:

Source.

You would want a thermocouple specifically made for food use. Example. I found that one by searching NSF thermocouple, a cautious approach since NSF (National Sanitation Foundation) certification entails high standards. But most thermocouple advertised for food should suffice, such as this $16 one.

Base on my research about Thermocouples it is a safe devices to use and also saves electricity consumptions. The reason behind is that Thermocouples has two dissimilar electrical conductors forming an electrical junction. And it produces a temperature-dependent voltage as a result of the thermoelectric effect, and this voltage can be interpreted to measure temperature. Now, if it safe to store food in it, well base on my research the device provide extremely accurate food temperature readings, so you can ensure meat, fish, and dairy items are safe for customer consumption.


What are the correct simmering times for chicken/vegetable stock? I recently read that cooking stock for more than about 2 hours negatively affects the flavor, and eventually vitiates the vitamins due to heat degradation.

This seems to conflict with advice I've read previously, which states that you need to do a "shimmering only" simmer (no bubbles) for 24-36 hours in order to extract/denature all of the collagen.

My questions are:

Is it true that extended simmering destroys flavor and nutrients, and if so, is it due to the time, temperature, or some combination of the two?
Which advice is better to follow? What are the optimal simmering times for the meat and vegetables?
If the simmering time for vegetables is shorter - at what stages should I add (and remove) them?

It is true that flavour is affected by cooking time. Most likely nutrients as well, but its about the vegetables. If you cook beef stock you should indeed cook it for several hours to release the collagen and proteins. My experience with chicken takes less time so 30 minutes in the pressure cooker or 1,5 hours in a normal pot. Then you can eat the meat as well.
Vegetables should only cook for 30 minuts so add the vegetables 30 minutes before the end of cooking regardless of the kind of soup. The fresh flavor of the vegetables will disapear if you cook it for longer then that.
Someone doing research on the flavour development and time for making stock

The trick to keep vegetable nutrient, is by maintaining the right size of your vegetable.
Big Size vegetable for long simmer, Medium size cut for medium simmer, and small cut for short simmer.


What kind of sauce did I "invent"? One day I had an idea for a special "sauce" to use on (chicken) burgers. The basic idea was to give it some sort of "salad dressing" like taste.

The basic ingredients are cream cheese, mustard, vinegar and freshly ground black pepper. Plus a bit of salt and maybe some herbs I had lying around (mainly tarragon).

Now, I know I probably didn't invent something completely new, so my question is, what kind of sauce have I created? Are there similar widely known (named) ones?

Assuming you didn't over-use the vinegar, and mainteined the spreadable consistency of the cream-cheese, I think what you've invented is also known as a sandwich spread.

When in doubt how to name anything, revert to the go-to language of cuisine: French and I would say:

Marriage de fromage, moutarde et herbes

(Marriage of cheese, mustard and herbs just sounds so much more sexy in French and black pepper is kind of a herb and you're not giving away the full recipe)

¯\_(ツ)_/¯


Is it ok to skip onions in a recipe? so this yet another attempt of mine to start cooking and yet again I'm frustrated by the perverse need of every single recipe to include onions. I hate onions, their flavour, their texture etc. and I can even taste it in soups. So my question is, if I leave onions out of the picture entirely, will the recipe still come together or do I absolutely need to come up with a substitute for them?

Thank you!

While you can do whatever you want to recipes you're following, you should be aware that onions are the backbone of the flavor of many dishes. If the recipe calls for more than a quarter onion or so per serving, and particularly if they are to be browned rather than cooked until translucent, the dish will probably be blander than intended if you leave the onions out.

The good news is, there's a lot of things that are similar to onions, notably scallions, leeks and shallots (thanks Benjamin Hodgson). If you are more okay with any of these things, go ahead and substitute (in the case of scallions and shallots, the amount should be roughly halved).

Remember that you can sauté an onion to have a sweetness to your dish without the onion taste.


Are Damascus steel kitchen knives worth it? Many manufacturers currently offer kitchen knives with Damascus steel blades at a premium.

Besides looking cool do such knifes have any better characteristics compared to simply good forged stainless steel kitchen knives?

At the time of my engineering degree (mid-1990s), the knowledge for true Damascus steel was lost, much like the knowledge of the recipes for the concrete used in the Roman Colosseum.

It's possible that more materials analysis has been performed since that point, as there have been a number of groups who would like to reproduce the process to determine how it compares to modern steel.  (museums aren't willing to subject the known pieces to destructive testing).

With modern steel, they intentionally introduce small proportions of other metals to interrupt the crystals that form as the metal is cooled; this helps to improve the strength of the steel as there isn't a single sheer plane that could allow fractures through the whole item.  They're also better able to control the cooling process, so that they can control what crystal structure forms in the steel as it's annealed and quenched.

My understanding of true Damascus steel is that it's likely two different crystaline structures, one more ductile (so it can compress to absorb more energy without failing) and the other more brittle (which can hold a sharper edge).  The two work together similar to today's composite materials.

Most of the stuff sold on the market today is laminated from two or more metals.  In many ways, it's more similar to the folding process of high-quality Japanese blades, but with dissimilar metals.  As the sheets are mostly parallel to each other, I would suspect that the strength improvement isn't as high as the more erratic patterns in true Damascus, but this is likely countered by using metals that are independently stronger.

So, to answer the specific questions:

Do they have some better characteristics?  Probably.
Are they worth the additional cost?  Not likely for the type of forces they'd be subjected to in a kitchen.

Most people are better off getting some decent but cheap knives and replacing them more often.  Victorinox Fibrox regularly wins America's Test Kitchen's ratings of knives.

Damascus steel has a cutting edge that is superior to all knives. Not only that, damascus steel holds a razor sharp edge longer, i.e. it's a super hard metal! Damascus steel is better used in a work place setting than in a city slicker setting. But yea it is purdy. Stainless steel is the safest to use in the household - it doesn't rust and you don't don't need a tetanus shot.


Can Rum-balls be made without alcohol? My wife and I enjoy a recipe for rum-balls that she has made in the past, but we have friends that choose not to consume any alcohol.

Is there any hope for non-alcoholic rum-balls? What could be substituted?

Can you make rum balls without rum?  Well... I suppose you could use rum extract, which has a very intense rum flavor.  You would also want to add some sugar syrup or water to make up for the lost moisture in your recipe.  However, you would not get the exact same outcome due to the lack of the evaporative effect of the alcohol when eating the confection, and due to the lack of alcohol as a flavor carrier.
I surveyed a number of rum ball recipes.  For yields of about two dozen to five dozen, none of them used more than 1/2 cup of rum.   This means that the rum per serving is on the order of a tablespoon teaspoon or so, or less.  You and your friends might feel this is a level of rum consumption that is fine.  I don't drink alcohol myself, and this level would not bother me.
There are many, many, many desserts and confections that you could make.   If your friends are strongly opposed to any alcohol at all, why choose this one, where you are trying to substitute for the key ingredient that gives the dish its identity?

I have a "Watkins" recipe that uses rum flavor.  its easy and the rum balls taste great.


Does the preparation of chicken liver mousse require force feeding of chickens? The force feeding of ducks or geese required to prepare foie gras (French "fatty liver") is widely known and banned in some states. I was at a restaurant last night which offered "Chicken Liver Mousse." It was creamy, delicious, and quite reminiscent of foie gras. In fact, many chefs are turning to this as a foie gras alternative.
The only discussion I've found on this is from this Reddit post. Other sites' preparation instructions do not discuss initial chicken treatment to get such a liver texture.
I'm curious if chickens are force fed to marbleize their livers in much the same way that ducks are. Have we just transitioned from one bird to another?

There's no need to force-feed the chickens.
Chicken Liver Mousse is just a posh word for a smooth paté, with sometimes a bit of extra aeration.
For every chicken, there's a chicken liver. The world eats a lot of chicken these days, so there's a lot of chicken liver to spare. All you need to add is butter for the extra fat content & resulting mouth-feel.
At its simplest, it's chicken liver, lightly sautéed in butter &/or oil, added onion or garlic, herbs & spices, alcohol, cream etc to taste, then whizzed in a blender until perfectly smooth. It's often not really a mousse, as it's not really fully aerated, but extra aeration makes it tend further towards an actual mousse, which the cooling butter will attempt to hold in place. You could go further perhaps using gelatine etc to hold the mousse as it cools.

NO
In that SAME source you quoted, the chicken liver is referenced as " free-range chicken liver"
I would think this rather clearly answers your question, no?


what's a good technique for pasteurizing eggs? I tried to make homemade eggnog last Christmas. It turned out fine, but the eggs were an issue. I thought about buying pasteurized eggs but they would've run me $12 for two dozen, which seemed obscene.

Pasteurization was important because my young child might have wanted some eggnog, so it needed to be very safe.

So I pasteurized the eggs by heating them a little at a time in the microwave, stirring, heating etc until they reached 145F. I may have separated the yolks, but can't remember exactly. I read about the technique on a blog. This worked well enough, but I ended up with some chunks of cooked egg in the egg nog. Not a big deal, but I spent a lot of time on this eggnog and was disappointed that it was less than perfect.

What's a good technique for pasteurizing eggs that doesn't result in chunks and gets the eggs to the correct temperature?

The microwave is too harsh an environment for this.

If you have a sous vide circulator, you can also pasteurize in-shell at 135 F (57 C) for for 75 minutes according to Douglas Baldwin's A Practical Guide to Sous Vide Cooking.

To pasteurize on the stove in the shell takes some care. You must bring the water up to 140 - 150 F (60 - 65 C) for 3 to 5 minutes to pasteurize them. You must not exceed 150 or you will begin to cook the egg. If the eggs are in the water as you heat it then they will closely match the temperature of the surrounding water. Just make sure they aren't resting on the bottom of the pan. If you want to be extra careful you can leave them in longer, as long as you don't let them get too hot.

Alternatively, since you're using them in egg nog, you can combine the eggs with the milk and heat this slowly on the stove until it reaches a temperature or 140-150 F, maintaining for 3-5 minutes.

The only guaranteed safe method is just to buy eggs pasteurized in the shell. IMHO, well worth the slightly higher price.


Holding mashed potatoes in fridge before serving I have some issues with holding mashed potatoes before serving them. Of course, it's not practical to make them from start to finish everytime someone orders them. I am trying to figure out how I will do this in a restaurant setting. I estimate that the potatoes will need to be good for at least 4 to 12 hours after making them.

I have tried keeping them in a slow-cooker at the lowest setting, but found that this setting causes bits of it to burn, and also makes them more over-cooked and gummy after 2-4 hours.

I have thought of putting individual servings in small containers in the fridge immediately after they are made and microwaving them just before serving. Will this cause the starches in the potato to change significantly and affect the flavor in any way?

I would suggest getting them to the riced/passed stage and then refrigerating in a tightly sealed container. When an order comes in, scoop out a portion, and bring it up to temperature with the use of hot milk (which could be microwaved) and a few minutes of on the stove. That way it's still reasonably fresh tasting.

Have you tried leaving the skins on, boiling then leaving them in a slow simmer to retain heat but not burn. You would cut your overall cook time without unnecessary drying or burning since they remain in water (or after boiling leave them in a steamer which would be better to keep from losing to much starch stiffness). Add a little instant patotoe mix to the mashed potatoes to give it "stiffness" if it boils to long and becomes to runny.


Can mayonnaise be infused with coconut, without getting watery? I want to make a mayonnaise-based sandwich spread with coconut milk in it, but I'm concerned that adding enough coconut milk for any flavor will make the spread too runny.

Note, I do not want to make mayonnaise from scratch - I have seen recipes where you infuse the oil in homemade mayo first then use it to make mayo.
I'm talking about using packaged mayo as the base, ending up with the texture of mayonnaise and the additional taste of coconut milk.

You can add some liquid to mayonnaise without breaking it.  I've added smallish amounts of soy sauce and hot sauce and such to mayonnaise with success.  The question would be, could you get enough coconut flavor into the mayonnaise before breaking the emulsion?

Hard to say without trying.

If it doesn't work, you can try using coconut cream instead of coconut milk.  Like the name suggests, coconut cream has a higher amount of fat and a lower amount of water than coconut milk. This should allow you to add more of it to the mayonnaise without making it too liquid.

Borrowing from Spagirl's answer -
Don't use milk or cream, use coconut oil, neat. It's the most 'coconutty' of all the options, & is a pure oil [no water or solids] so your mayo won't crack or become watery.

You need them both 'warm', about 25°C or it will either spilt or solidify in lumps…
This is about the temperature needed to make mayo in the first place, so don't worry too much.

Depending on where you live, coconut oil is either a liquid or a solid - the transition is at about 24°C [75°F]. If it's still solid where you live, then a really short burst in the microwave will transform it, or if your mayo is cold too, a bain marie at 25° for both of them.

Again dependant on your local ambient temperature [or fridge] don't try to blend it into very cold mayo, have it at room temperature [but don't be tempted to microwave mayo if you live in a cold climate, the result will not be pretty].

Once blended, straight back in the fridge.


White stains and stainless steel cookware I know this question has been asked before in some form or another, but I can't seem to find a definitive answer. I've looked on SA, chowhound, martha stewart, about.com, etc., and answers seem to vary. Answers that I've seen vary from using vinegar to washing using special stainless steel soaps (which I'm not very keen on using) to only using soft sponges and hot water.

The one thing I always do is wash my stainless steel with warm soapy water and a soft sponge. If there's burned food stuck on the cookware, I scrape it off with a wood pot scraper (lightly, of course). And I always dry with a soft cloth immediately after washing. Yet I still get stains!

I'd like to get a general consensus on how to prevent those white and rainbow colored stains as well as minimizing corrosion.

These are just mineral (calcium) stains from your water source. They will not affect the stainless steel.

The quickest way to clean stainless steel from burnt on oil, food, and water stains is to use a polyprop/ester scouring pad (e.g. 3M's branded as Scotch-Brite).

Use a little liquid dish wash soap, a poly scourer pad, and a generous serve of elbow grease. It's cheaper than going to the gym :-)

Stainless steel is a hardy material, and does not need delicate handling.

USE ✨EASY-OFF✨ Oven Cleaner!

It will NOT hurt your Stainless Steel Pots & Pans or Ceramics. I was using it to clean baked on splatters from the oven door glass. I had a huge can and a small useless  window and I read the label while  waiting for the promised magic to happen.

It reads: "Ideal for cleaning ovens / oven doors, barbecue grills, broilers / broiler pans, and stainless steel surfaces!"

I first tried my neglected Old Stainless Pot and 2 Stainless baking pans. Whoa!!  The Solid Hard Brown/Black Crud just wiped off easily from the Window, Old Pot & Both Pans with a Sponge & Water!

⭐ So, the Window and Old Pot needed another squirt of EASY-OFF to get the last 10% of the crud, sooooo I also squirted some EASY-OFF Foam on my very New Cuisinart Professional Series Stainless Steel Skillet across the base to get some blackened burnt on drips and inside to get a few burnt lines from burnt food that I didn't muscle off yet.

⭐⭐ Behold! The Old Pot, the Window, and New Skillet are Crud Free! EVEN THE CLOUDY SPOTS on the Old Pot & New Skillet are Gone! The Old Pot looks Great and the New Skillet has its Brand New SHINE ✨

  EASY-OFF Did It and there's absolutely no harm to the Stainless at all!


Recommendations for spice organization strategies Spices have always been the hardest thing for me to keep track of in the kitchen. I'm interested in specific recommendations for

hardware (containers, labeling, shelving, etc.) and
organization schemes (alphabetical? categories?)

in order to make it easier to find the spices I'm looking for.

Alphabetically works best for us.

I have a friend that does alphabetically by sweet and savory.

Use an organization scheme from inventory management: IDs or SKUs.

Number the spice jars 1 to 100, for example.

Then track them in a spreadsheet. Makes it very easy to find exactly what you need. "I need jar 5, 19, 20, and 41 for this recipe." (If you can't identify spices on sight, you might need to put the name on the jar too).

I use a 6-column spreadsheet, like so:

ID. NAME. FORM. DATE. NOTES. REORDER. *
ID 7. Chili. WHOLE. Jan 2012. Ancho (hot!). YES.
ID 8. Chili. GROUND. Jan 2012. Aleppo (very hot!).
ID 9. Cilantro. WHOLE SEED. Dec 2011.
ID 12. Cinnamon. GROUND. Mar 2012.
ID 15. Cinnamon. STICKS. Mar 2012. YES.
ID 16. Cloves. GROUND. Apr 2011.
ID 18. Cloves. WHOLE. Mar 2012. YES.
ID 21. Cocoa. POWDERED, Mar 2010. Dutch-process; great for hot cocoa!

ID. Makes it easy to find the spice you need. "I need jar 10." It also means you can skip the alphabetizing and/or grouping of spices. Cinnamon right next to the onion flakes? No problem! Much easier to organize 5, 6, 7 than by spice name.

FORM. Helps me grab the "cinnamon sticks" not the "powdered cinnamon", the "whole cloves" not the "ground cloves".

DATE. Let's me know how old, as some spices lose much of their flavor after a few weeks/months. If it's old, I consider using more (or replacing it).

NOTES. Can contain just about anything, like "SAFFRON IS VERY EXPENSIVE. USE SPARINGLY!!!"

The spreadsheet helps with re-ordering too. I just copy/paste the name into Penzey's website (http://www.penzeys.com) and I easily find what I need to reorder.

You can add fields to the spreadsheet, like the product number at Penzey's for "Whole Special Extra Bold Indian Black Peppercorns". That definitely helps when it's time to reorder.


Can a sour dough starter be too active? Can a sour dough starter be too active?  My starter almost tripled in 4 hours.  Should I keep feeding it and when do you know that it is ready?.

Different starters can behave very differently depending on what's growing and the temperature. I'd say it's probably not TOO active.

However, some times sour dough starters can grow really fast in the first one or two days, at this point it is NOT ready. There needs to be a few days for different types of bacteria growing and dying out before you get the right types and balance of bacteria and yeast. Do the following checks before you use starter.

Has it been at least a week
does it smell good (should be a light refreshing yeast smell, not a bad smell, if it smell like socks or something, throw it all out and try again)
does it double consistently after feeding

If all checks out, it's probably ready, if not just keep feeding every day and keep at room temperature

Richard, starters can vary for many reasons from type and age of the yeast, I prefer old fashioned "cake" yeast (which is getting harder to find) or "brewer's" yeast (which has become easier to find with all the interest in "home", "craft" & "artisans" brewing.
The water you use can also affect the rate of growth of the yeast, hard or soft water, municipal (chlorine & flouride) can affect as well as altitude.
So basically  unless there is an "off smell or color" you will probably  be OK. Don't put your jar lid on too tight, the yeast is "alive" and growing  which means it is giving of carbon dioxide and can build up pressure if the lid is too tight.
Your bread dough probably  will not double near as fast and your starter will settle down with age, you might want to use a larger jar or container until you learn what to expect.
Good luck and watch out if your neighbors  smell that delicious San Francisco aroma of baking Sourdough bread, they may be knocking at your door!


Are countertop blenders with plastic jars dangerous? At my local shopping center, I notice that all models of countertop blenders, even the most expensive ($500 USD), have plastic jars. I am concerned that if the blade inside comes loose or breaks while the power is on, that the blade will break through the glass. Are plastic blenders dangerous to use? Which material (e.g. glass, plexiglass) should I look for when choosing a model that will be used to blend fruits, meat, and vegetables?

Looking at it from a materials-science standpoint rather than a physics standpoint, I agree that plastic is safer than glass.

The difference is in how they break.  Glass is stronger than plastic, for any plastic that a blender jar is likely to be made out of, and is less likely to break from, for example, trying to blend a spoon you forgot to remove.  However, glass is also brittle.

When a plastic jar breaks, the most likely break is a single crack running up one side.  The rest of the jar will flex to absorb the energy of the break and then return to its original shape.  The jar will remain in one piece, without exposing any sharp edges.

When a glass jar breaks, it can't flex the way plastic can.  Instead, the jar will shatter into two or more pieces, and unless it was made from tempered glass (unlikely) or laminated glass (even more unlikely), those pieces will be sharp-edged, making for a dangerous mess to clean up.

I just saw this link because I was googling plastic v glass.  My Ninja exploded (the blade did not break off, still not sure what caused the whole other than some froze strawberries)... so I was going to switch to glass thinking it was safer.  Ninja still hasn't responded to me..


dry garlic in oil --> botulism risk? My girlfriend and I are thinking of preparing some flavored oils for Christmas presents this year (don't tell anyone!). We've read online that fresh garlic presents a health hazard when stored at room temperature, because the low-acidity, oxygen-free environment is perfect for the botulism-causing spore to develop.

In order to avoid this, we've used dried, minced garlic (bought at the store). However, I haven't found any substantial evidence that this mixture is safe for storage at room-temperature. One site mentioned that the lack of water in the garlic removes the "food" for the spore, and therefore the risk.

Do you know if dried garlic (or any other easily available garlic type) can be stored for longer periods at room temperature?

The most common data point seems to be that any moisture level below 35% will inhibit growth of the C. Botulinum spores that cause botulism.  It's hard to point to true scientific sources because they tend to be protected, but if you spend a few minutes on Google (try this query) you'll see that it is in fact confirmed in several of the scientific journals.

I seem to be seeing snippets of references (which I can't view the full text of) that suggest possible growth at moisture levels  as low as 16%, but most garlic flakes have 6% moisture or lower, which is way too low for botulism.

If you are seriously concerned - perhaps you live in a very humid climate and don't have air conditioning - then toss a desiccant into the container to be sure that the moisture level stays down.  The most popular are those little packets of silica gel (don't open them!), but there are many more - see Wikipedia's list of desiccants.

Honestly though, chances are your flaked garlic is already free of C. Botulinum spores after the dehydrating process, and nothing's going to grow no matter how you store the dried stuff.  The above paragraph is only included for the hyper-paranoid.  Powdered/flaked garlic is safe to store at room temperature.

If you're actually storing this garlic in the oil (it's not entirely clear from your question) then that's another story, and theoretically you're making it possible for the spores to grow again.  So it comes down to a question of whether or not the garlic flakes are already clean.  That's extremely likely to be the case, but not a sure thing, and personally, I don't know if I'd chance it; best to follow the same precautions as those for fresh garlic and soak them in vinegar for 24 hours to kill any spores (although you might as well use fresh garlic in this case).

Botulinum forms a spore. Think of the spore like a walnut shell that protects the organism inside. It has been shown to protect the organism from heat and cold. Did you know scientists store live Botulinum in liquid nitrogen? It is one tough bug. Botulinum is anarobic. This means oxygen is an enemy. It goes into spore form when in the presence of oxygen to survive in a domant state.Dried Garlic. Adding oil will provide the anaerobic environment it needs to live. Adding oil to dried garlic will give the Botulinum what it needs to muliply. It will continue to muliply even in your refrigerator. Most people associate Botulinum with mayonnaise but food science has improved our store bought mayo by lowering the pH to below 4.6. Low pH helps control Botulinum. Water content also controls growth. The drier the better. Home made garlic in oil should be treated as a potentially hazardous food in regards to time as a control. 4 hours and it should be tossed.


Why do fridge temperature standards between US and other countries differ? US recommendations always go for +4°C at most, and this would correlate with how the danger zone is defined in the pertinent literature.

In Germany, most literature (and also the specification next to use-by dates on packaging) suggests +7°C or +8°C. http://www.br.de/radio/bayern1/inhalt/experten-tipps/umweltkommissar/kuehlschrank-temperatur-energie-verbrauch-umweltkommissar-100.html

Surprisingly, the first dutch google result http://www.consumentenbond.nl/koelkast/extra/temperatuur-koelkast/ suggests +3-4°C.

France, http://www.linternaute.com/bricolage/pratique/electromenager/17004/temperature-frigo-tout-ce-qu-il-faut-savoir.html +4°C

UK,
http://www.exeter.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=11517 +8°C and redefines the danger zone.

What is up with that, given +4°C vs +8°C is not as trivial a difference as it looks like...

Not truly answered in possible duplicate What is the ideal fridge temperature. If even on this site such things aren't accepted as a "matter of opinion" (generally good!), why would they be between devoloped nations?

One would assume biology and state of science being the same in all these countries, either things are likely or very unlikely to spoil in a non-visible way at that or that temperature...

As a starting point, I found this article, which says:

  The suggested temperature specification for refrigeration of foods has been revisited from time to time as knowledge and technology have advanced. Initially 7°C (45°F) was considered the optimal temperature; however, technological improvements have made it economical to have domestic refrigeration units working at a temperature of 4-5°C (40-41°F). For perishable products ≤4.4°C (40°F) is considered a desirable refrigeration temperature. ... Even these measures cannot control all pathogenic bacterial growth. For example L. monocytogenes, Yersinia enterocolitica, Aeromonas hydrophila, B. cereus and C. botulinum will multiply at recommended “good” refrigeration temperatures (5°C [41°F]). There are other bacteria (Salmonella spp., E. coli and S. aureus), that, although unable to grow at temperatures below 5°C (41°F), will take advantage of temperature abuse and grow. ...

If you're interested in additional detail about all that, the article does have a bibliography, but most of it is not accessible online. I did find this table of temperature ranges for growth for several common bacteria, though. Note that for example C. botulinum grows down to 3.3C/38°F, and L. monocytogenes (listeria) grows down to 29.3°F (-1.5°C)! So even 4°C isn't stopping everything.

In any case, there definitely is concrete benefit from the 4°C guideline: many foodborne bacteria will definitely multiply above 5°C, which would lead to shorter safe refrigeration times (or more foodborne illness if you times aren't adjusted) at the 7°C or 8°C temperatures used in Germany.

I don't know anything concrete about why Germany has chosen to tolerate this risk, however. The historical progression to lower temperatures cited there does suggest that Germany simply hasn't adjusted their standards lower as technology has improved (as mentioned in the article) but it's not clear why.

A side note: outside of food safety, the primary way fridges can have an undesired effect on food is by accidentally freezing it. (Temperatures vary by position in the fridge, and by time.) There's a balance here between reducing temperature as much as possible for safety, and keeping far enough above 0°C that variance doesn't routinely freeze your food. Given that some things grow even below 4°C, I'm guessing that if it were possible to hold temperature more constant, we'd actually see even lower temperature recommendations, in the same vein as previous decreases in temperature recommendations.

Let me start with the answer-direction

1) For household purposes (your data), the difference between four and eight degrees is small;
2) That makes it likely that the differences are trivial as well. Any scenario: Germany started at eight, and kept it at that. France started at four. Holland followed france, because they made cheaper fridges etc etc.

or
france eats fresh food and quickly, so it does not need low temps, no difference between eight and four in french culture..

or .. the german eightdegree lobby was just more succesful.

Sometimes there just are no reasons. No differences in science or insights. Just historical routes, and 8 works just fine. Obviously, 18 would not work..

You would be surprised how much we think is written in stone and based on research and theory, which is just arbitrarely and with huge cultural differences.

To use the same example twice today: the US thinks that raw milk is close to deadly, while France sells it in supermarkets, with no significant differences in health outcomes. The us washes eggs and has to cool them afterwards because their defense is destroyed, in other countries it is illegal to wash them, and so no cooling is required (but they dont look as clean, of course). No difference in health (huge difference in energy and effort of course). Etc Etc.

So if you ask me: good question, no answer except a very historical-trivial one.

But hey, I might be wrong. Just a first attempt..


Why do you need eggs when making icecream? I was looking for a good recipe to make pistachio almond ice cream, but all of them needed Eggs.

My uncle used to sell home ice cream in Mexico, and I'm 100% that he never used an egg to make pistachio almond ice cream, or any other ice cream.

However, it's not the first time I see eggs listed as an ingredient for homemade ice cream.

Is there any particular reason for that? Why do you need eggs? What other thing can I use instead of eggs?

There are two main base recipes for ice cream. French style ice cream contains egg yolks, which help make it soft, rich, smooth, creamy, custardy. Philadelphia style ice cream (sometimes called American style) has no eggs, and relies on the fat in the cream to keep it soft, but will still never be as rich and smooth as French style, and will still tend to freeze harder.

You can make pretty much any ice cream in either style, including the pistachio-almond you want to make. You can look around for recipes without eggs; I wouldn't be surprised if you manage to find one one. Or you can simply use a Philadelphia style base, and look at one of the recipes you found to see how to add the pistachio and almond. Depending on how rich you want it, you'll want 2-3 cups of heavy cream for each 1 cup of milk; about 3/4 cup of sugar should work, depending on how sweet you want it. If that's not rich enough for you, you can even replace the milk with cream. (You could also just go find a recipe for Philadelphia style vanilla ice cream and use that as a base - it doesn't get much simpler than that.)

(P.S. You could also try gelato, something like this recipe - it uses corn starch as a stabilizer instead.)

You need protein to keep the water and fat in the ice cream together. You can also use cream cheese instead of eggs. I just started making ice cream using recipes from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home.  All her recipes use a whole milk, cream, sugar, and corn syrup base, then mixed with a slurry and cream cheese.


Should tomatoes be stored in the fridge? Storing tomatoes in the fridge tends to make them last a bit longer, but I've heard that the flavor is negatively affected. What is the best way to store them?

From the great Harold McGee, they may last longer in the fridge, but they will taste like cardboard:

  Tomatoes came originally from a warm
  climate, and should be stored at room
  temperature. Their fresh flavor
  readily suffers from refrigeration.
  Tomatoes at the mature-green stage are
  especially sensitive to chilling at
  temperatures below about 55°F/13°C,
  and suffer damage to their membranes
  that results in minimal flavor
  development, blotchy coloration, and a
  soft, mealy texture when they're
  brought back to room temperature.

Excerpted from "On Food And Cooking", by Harold McGee

Ripening is an oxidation process and is slowed down by lowering the temp. As for flavor to me there is no difference only the temp difference. They are always stored in cool temp in the market.


How can I make Chinese chicken fingers like in the northeast USA? Does anyone know how to duplicate the chicken fingers found at Chinese restaurants in the Boston area? The batter on them is very puffy, and doesn't really conform to the shape of the chicken.

Google has been no help in finding a recipe (though it did find this picture):

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/179/385182683_6af6fbf451.jpg?v=0

I couldn't find them at any of the restaurants I checked in California, so they may be a Northeast-only thing. Someone must have discovered the secret though! Anyone with a recipe?

I tried this out the other night. It's extremely close. As michelle suggested, self-rising flour seems to be the key. The recipe I used was:

1/4 cup self-rising flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp sugar
1/2 cup water (or a little less)

Sift dry ingredients into a small bowl. In another bowl, slowly mix dry ingredients and water, being careful to avoid adding too much water.

It's meant to be really thick. As in, if you lay a small strip of chicken on top of the batter, the chicken should not sink.

Heat up oil for deep frying (360F to 375F). Slice chicken into thin strips, batter them, and deep fry until golden. Check one or two to make sure the chicken is cooked through.

Serve with duck sauce, if you can find it (ask a local Chinese restaurant if you can buy a pint). Nom nom.

Aunt jemima pancake mix and oil at 360 degrees nailed it. I eat at Tiki Island in Everett MA and they taste great and the same.


What kind of tray or tray coating to use for pretzels? I've been making traditional German pretzels with a lye bath, but the pretzels tend to bake onto the baking sheets. I've tried a few different kinds of trays, all with less that perfect results.

Non-stick coatings actually stick to the bottom of my pretzels and
get pulled off the trays.
Some pans without coatings react visibly with the lye solution, i.e.
bubbling. Unfortunately, I'm not sure which metal this pan was made
of. On the other hand, the pretzels stick less.
Wax paper sticks to the degree that I have to cut it off.

I would like to find a solution that prevents my pretzels from sticking and me from ingesting any Teflon, metal, or paper.

You need a Silpat! I recommend a half sheet size Silpat and a Stainless Steel Half-Sheet Pan.

A Silpat is a silicone mat. It's the most non-stick way to bake anything, and they're quite durable. Buy a couple of mats and you can just swap them out when baking multiple batches.

According to folks at The Fresh Loaf the silicone shouldn't react at all with the lye.

Aluminum reacts badly with lye, so be sure that nothing you use with the lye contains aluminum.

When you say wax paper, I'm assuming you really mean parchment paper (since wax smokes like crazy in the oven).  Have you tried nonstick aluminum foil?  It works really well for keeping stuff from sticking.  Or what about greasing the pan or using ceramic pans?  They make ceramic baking pans (like cookie sheets).


Can I separate cream from powdered whole milk? Can I separate cream from powdered whole milk? I spend much of my time in the Philippines and milk is very expensive and cheeses are almost impossible to get. I am making pizzas and I want to make my own mozzarella cheese.I want to buy powdered whole milk in bulk for making cheese, butter, and ice cream. I want to remove some of the cream from the reconstituted dry milk to make butter and ice cream with and to use the milk with the cream removed to make cheese and buttermilk.

I don't think you can get cream out of your milk - it would be homogenized by the process, and people would want their milk to be smooth and not separate out so they would take precautions against such a thing in the manufacturing.  Also, a lot of the powdered milk I see sold is skim milk powder, you should be very sure you're getting full fat powdered milk even to try.

You might be able to get butter, but as far as I know butter from whole milk would be a lot of work for a relatively low yield (one reason cream is preferred, and butter was historically often made from soured milk - it was easier to get butter after culturing).  Though it looks like powdered milk can be used in cheese-making (according to CMB92's link), for increasing yield of cheese or making fresh cheese (your mozzarella could qualify).

On the other hand, if you are buying in bulk, you might contact the seller and see if you can't get some packages of powdered cream along with the milk.  They are likely made by the same manufacturers, and same processes, so it might be possible to substitute for part of your bulk order or else purchase additionally, or even inquire about other powdered products (buttermilk, sour cream, butter powder, etc).  I've used powdered cream before...it can be a bit tricky to work with but, at least with the brand I got, you can make even whipped cream, and also butter - we almost did, from overwhipping the cream.  And manufacturers recommendations usually include uses for ice cream and baking, although you will want to check by the brand you buy, since some recommendations differ.  You can fortify your powdered milk for making cheese with, if you want higher fat.

And, heavens, I think it would be easier to have two or three packages to scoop out of rather than trying to reconstitute and separate the cream out of your milk (and store it up for separate uses).  You might even be able to make skim milk powder work, if that is what is available, by supplementing it with cream powder to make a "whole milk".

Use Full Cream whole milk powder?

Cream rises to the top of  whole milk  full bottles on front door steps on cold frosty mornings.

Make a pint of milk from full cream milk powder, put in freezer to semi freeze?

I have not tried this....

Just a (silly) thought, observation......


What precautions should I take when preparing food while I have a cold? If I have a cold, what precautions should I take while preparing food to make sure that I don't transmit germs?

Wash your hands thoroughly and frequently.  See Clean Hands Save Lives.
Do not at any point cough into your hands.  Coughing into a sleeve is considered less likely to transmit germs.
To really prevent breathing on your food and potentially transmitting germs that way, you could consider wearing a mask.

Personally I'd consider the last step optional (and the other two not).