Whats causing odd flavour in reheated chicken? I make some chicken soup and it tastes fine.  However I notice that when I reheat it again it taste like sulfur or something other chemicals, not really sure what it is.

Chemically speaking can anyone tell me what is happening, and what this is?
I've read that it may be fat oxidizing.  Does that mean it, it doesn't matter whether the chicken is reheated, or eaten again when cold, they same chemical will form and be noticeable?

I don't just want to mask the smell, but would prefer to whats going on and how it can be avoided to begin with. Does one really have to cook a fresh batch twice in one day to avoid this?

Also if possible, please tell me chemically speaking what specifically is happening.

I will assume you mean you are microwaving your soup when reheating.

Microwaving effectively boils the water within food, mostly at the surface, and will at a minimum leave it dryer than it was before.

As for the smell, the water removed from the chicken could be unmasking a certain smell in the food or even carrying it out and delivering the smell to your nose.

I personally can't STAND reheated chicken. I can not stand the smell, taste, or texture. I would much rather eat it cold if I need to eat it at all. The smell is caused by the denaturing of the protein. The fastest way is to simply cook something. Cooking a protein begins to break it down. Another way to denature protein is to simply let it rot. This is also why the freshest fish has very little smell, but the same fish may start to smell 'fishy' if overcooked. It is also why an over cooked egg may smell sulfuric. Denatured protein is easier for humans to digest, and cooking it is safer than letting it rot. Many other foods will smell 'rotten' if they are over cooked because for all intents and purposes they are going through the same process.


pork fillet cooking time I have a pork fillet which I've cut in half and marinated in some honey and soy.  I heated a pan, and seared it on all sides, then put the pan in the oven at 180 deg C.  The question is, how long to leave it in the oven until it's cooked through?  I suspect it's about 20 minutes for the average fillet (3-4cm in diameter).  Any suggestions?

Every Kitchen needs a meat thermometer. Little too late in this case but it would have saved you here. I never used one at home until after I started working in a restaurant that only had a flat top and a convection oven with burgers on the menu. I got a relatively cheap one for $5-10 at Wal-mart and it does the job.  Another option for next time is to check your meat often and poke it with a spoon, once it feels firm throughout, like the skin on the back of your hand when you make a fist, it's done.

15 minutes is way to long.
If the fillet was seared brown ( 5 to 8 minutes), then 8 to 10 minutes in the oven, 400 F, would be perfect for a nice juicy filet. Porkfillet should be slightly pink I the middle.If not then it is dry and basically ruined.


Does honey actually tenderize meat? I was recently reading a cooking manga named Shokugeki no Soma, in which the protagonist uses unconventional methods to cook specific dishes. In one chapter, he uses honey specifically to tenderize meat in a short amount of time.  Here's the chapter page specifically:

I tried it for myself but can't seem to replicate the same thing he's done, if anything the beef remained relatively hard, and not soft as the manga describes. While some scenes are somewhat outlandish there is a certain truth to most of the cooking terms thrown around in the manga, so I'm curious: does honey actually contain proteases that tenderize meat quickly?

This article on LIVESTRONG.com seems to support the other fact in the same page which claims that pineapple can be used to tenderize meat, but it doesn't make any reference to honey at all.

If you're curious, this is the anime version of it:

https://youtu.be/5GCUzTyp9sE?t=6m36s

Based on the description given in the manga (specifically "I rubbed it on the meat before boiling" [emphasis mine]) I would guess that this is not actually an effect of tenderization at all.  Instead, the effect is possibly closer to that of velveting.

The velveting technique is typically done with a thin coating of corn starch, and my working theory is that this seals in the natural juices of the meat while preventing the outer layers from drying out. Being thick and viscous, honey might have much the same effect. As a result, the final product seems more tender, but that's just because it's been more delicately cooked - not due to any special tenderizing power of the honey itself.

Honey is not a tenderizer, pineapple juice is. It's the acidity of the pineapple juice.

Honey has a low pH but it is far too viscous to penetrate pores.


How to ferment dosa batter? I have never been successful in fermenting dosa batter properly in the US. I generally soak urad dal, rice and fenugreek seeds for a few hours and grind them together. Even if I leave the batter in 30°C temperature, the batter does not double in volume, as is generally does in India. The batter seems to ferment somewhat because of the sour taste but it seems that the fermentation is not being done by the "right" microorganisms.

Any ideas on improving fermentation, or on mimicking the process they use in India?

I found some pointers here:
http://www.indiacurry.com/south/batterexplained.htm

(The following is just taken from the information in that link, I do not actually know anything about dosa)

It seems that the lack of fermentation could be due to a number of things:

Overwashing the ingredients (removes the wild yeast).
Using chlorinated water (kills the wild yeast). Use bottled water instead of tap water.
Iodine in the salt can also kill the wild yeast. Use kosher salt instead.
Temperature. As you have already noted in your question, normal room temperature in the US may be too low. You could try putting it in the oven with just the light on, no heat. Or if you have a gas oven, with just the pilot light on.

To make it ferment better, add a little bit of commercial yeast to the batter.


What can I do with frozen eggs? Although a previous question asks if raw eggs can be frozen, my eggs froze, in the shell, because the chicken coop into which they were delivered was very cold last week.

I thawed the eggs, and they seem fine, except that the yolks are solid / gelatinous. This means that scrambled eggs are out, at least as I know them.

What else can be done with these eggs; this will probably happen again?

The best I can offer you comes from Functionality of Proteins in Food:

  The gelation of egg yolk can be partially reversed by heating after thawing.  This treatment improves the functional properties of proteins.  The stiffness of the gels obtained after frozen storage can be reduced by more than 50% and become pourable at 21° C by heating up to 45° C for 1 h.

Eggs don't actually start to set until you hit 63° C, so if I had previously-frozen eggs, I would heat them as the above paragraph suggests.  Just be very careful not to use too much heat.

You won't get perfect eggs, but they'll be edible.

Before you freeze the raw eggs (1) add half ts of salt with every cup of raw eggs, poke the yoke mix with the white and put in freezer bag or container and freeze them, for savory or main dishes. (2) add 1Tbs of sugar for each cup of raw eggs mix the yoke with the white and freeze for baking and desserts. They can stay good up to 1 year in the freezer. The salt and sugar is to keep the eggs from becoming gelatinous. I hope I did help


How do I melt the chocolate in a s'more? It is an age old question.

How can I ensure that the chocolate in a s'more is properly melted. Even when assembling them quickly the marshmallow just doesn't have enough heat to melt the chunk of chocolate.

Any solutions are welcome but I would especially like to know how to do it with no special tools- just a campfire and a stick.

Since you specified not wanting any equipment other than a campfire and a stick, the best I can do is add one more piece of equipment you should be able to find anywhere (i.e., not have to carry with you): a rock.

If you put a flat-topped rock just to the edge of your campfire, you should be able to place a graham cracker and slab of chocolate on top of it. While you are toasting your marshmallow on the stick, the chocolate should start to melt. This technique won't produce totally melted chocolate (unless you have a very large, very hot fire), but the chocolate should get a little melty without being so runny that none of it makes it into your mouth.

This only works if you have thin Hershey bars or other chocolate in relatively thin pieces. Thick slabs won't soften all the way through with this type of indirect heat.

And for those people concerned about dirt, bring some aluminum foil to act as a buffer between the rock/dirty stuff and your s'more.

Extraneous but related note:

Your question got me thinking about ways to achieve melted chocolate with microwave s'mores (a last resort if I'm stuck inside with an electric oven or no oven at all), and I have an idea I'll test out tonight. When I microwave s'mores, I usually microwave the bottom graham cracker, chocolate and marshmallow together, then top with the other graham cracker once the marshmallow gets gooey. The chocolate doesn't really get melted that way, though, because marshmallows take almost no time at all to melt. I'm wondering if pushing the chocolate inside the marshmallow before I stick it in the microwave might help the chocolate melt more. I will update once I've had a chance to try this.

Edit:
I didn't really notice any difference between microwaving the chocolate inside the marshmallow v. underneath the marshmallow.

I think Hershey changed something in their recipe to keep chocolate from melting too quickly in the sun/heat. Back in 1970 the chocolates melted just fine in Girl Scouts.


Thaw / Brine partially frozen turkey at the same time I’ve found sites that say it’s ok to start a brine for a partially frozen turkey. My question is, when you thaw a turkey using the cold water method, they say to change the water every 30 minutes. If you’re brining a partially frozen turkey, do you have to change the brine (including all the herbs and whatnot) every 30 minutes as well?

I believe the reasoning for changing the water every 30 minutes is to speed up defrosting.   I imagine the defrost time would be reduced drastically. However, that seems like a mess and a lot of work. If you're brining a partially frozen turkey, from a safety perspective, I would not change the water out. I'd just leave it in the water. The main thing you are looking for is that the water temp never goes above 4C/40F. You can do this by doing in the fridge, or cooler, or outside if you live in the right place.
See these related questions for more info:

How can I effectively time a short thawing and brining of a a turkey?
How cold can a brining turkey get before freezing?

You cannot brine frozen or partially frozen food. Brining is in essence the process of osmosis. By adding the meat to a saline solution, you repeatedly dehydrate and hydrate the meat. The salt molecules draw moisture out of the protein structures which is then replaced by the water. This is done because this process breaks down the cell walls in the protein, which aids in moisture retention, which just means juicier meat. Something which works well with lean cuts of meat like chicken and turkey.
But the saline solution cannot do this when the cell walls are frozen solid. You are also probably risking some sort of pathogen growing in the meat. You can dredge the frozen meat in luke  warm water while still in its plastic to aid in a quicker defrost. Also it is worth noting that cold water and cold meat leads to a retardation in the osmosis process, you really want the brine and the meat to be at room temperature. If you use the correct amount of salt with defrosted meat the salt will have a anti-microbial effect on the water and the meat, which will keep things safe.


What is the best temperature to roast a spatchcock chicken? From your own personal experience, what was the best temperature and time it took to roast a whole chicken in the oven? Im doing a spatchcock. I want to know what temperature worked best for you to obtain the best result.

Thanks!

I use a fairly high heat of 500F (260C) to render fat and crisp skin (after chicken has been air drying in the refrigerator overnight). Most of the time, for me, a whole chicken takes about an hour and 15 minutes.  Depending on size, a spatchcocked bird will take about an hour.  Use a thermometer to gauge your preferred doneness.

Cook in the centre of a 200c oven for 75 mins uncovered and cover with foil and rest for 20 mins.


Is it possible to steam steak? Steaming seems like an ideal cooking method; I've seen it used for mostly vegetables, sometimes fish (salmon).

Is it possible to steam a steak? Does it cook well? (I assume the target is medium doneness.)

What are the limitations of steaming steak? For example, I usually marinate mine in some oil, soy sauce, salt, black pepper, and garlic; I assume if I steam it, I would put the soy sauce in the steaming liquid.

You could do it, and it would certianly cause the meat to be cooked. However, I suspect it would lead to a less-than-tasty result.
There are two potential issues here that I can see:

If you're steaming, the temperature maxes out at 100 degrees Centigrade. This leads to longer cooking time, and a "washed" look. Think of how the chicken meat looks in chicken soup.
You'll be losing the Maillard reaction, which is what gives that lovely outside texture to anything fried. This is because of the relatively low temperature of steaming, and the lack of liquid (oil) to react with.

It's possible to steam a steak. You will cook it and you will remove all the flavour.

@BaffledCook is giving you good advice with the sous-vide route, but it requires specialist kit to do, which even a lot of professional kitchens don't have. You can glad wrap or bag your steak before steaming - highly recomended since it with retain all the flavour of both the steak and the marinade. But to get that lovely finish, brown surface (the Maillard reaction mentioned by @Carmi) you're going to have to drop it onto some hot iron! A Skillet, pan, what ever you want to call it!

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that steaming a steak is disrespecting the animal it came from. Bring your steak and marinade up to room temp or a little warmer and sear it on a smoking hot skillet. Enjoy.

PS putting soy in the water will have very little effect since the mineral element will not evaporate in a manner that will season your meat, and any of the more volatile compounds that might add the light, more fragrant seasoning notes, will have evaporated in the first couple of minutes.


Is there a substitute for tahini in hummus? If I don't have tahini is there anything similar to use to make hummus?

Sort of.

If you have sesame seeds on hand, grind some up. You could also use toasted sesame oil, and even combine it with the ground seeds.

You can also use all-natural peanut butter. Don't use mass market crap with sugar and other additives. The ingredients should list only: peanuts, salt. Obviously, this will taste like peanuts. It will still taste good in a hummus, but it will be a distinctly different hummus than with tahini.

Oddly enough I am just making some Humus.  chickpeas, olive oil, lime, salt and pepper and garlic, whizz up in the blender, NO TAHINI...


How long does butter cream icing keep? My icing is 1/4 cup butter to 1 1/2 cups of icing sugar and a couple tablespoons of milk, so I'm thinking that with so much sugar, the answer is "almost indefinitely in the fridge."

So, as the title says, how long is it reasonable to keep the remnants of a batch?  Although I've made small amounts (like the above recipe) on occasion, I'd like to make a big batch, seal it up, and use it as needed.

(I realize that it might not work as well a month or two down the road, I'll experiment with it if I decide it's ok to use.)

Well you're kinda right about it lasting a long time due to the sugar content.  That will help the preserving process to the extreme.  However, to be pratical you should be looking at how long the butter fat will survive in the fridge before it starts to take on funky flavours and loses it's moisture.

You'll be fine in an air tight tub for a month or so but then flavour will suffer.  If you freeze it (it can be done but the quality will really suffer later) you can get away with 4-6 months before freezer burn kills it.

Honestly, I'd just do smaller batches and enjoy the higher quality product.  For what you save on time doing the larger batch, you'll give up on taste and quality later.

In the fridge, in a sealed container, buttercream can be stored for up to two weeks. The amount of sugar it contains has absolutely nothing to do with shelf life.


What is this waxed root vegetable? I recently ordered a grocery delivery from Whole Foods, and as I was ordering I noticed they had rutabagas, which I've never had before, so I decided to try them. What I got was this:

They don't look anything like any picture I can find online of rutabagas, which are supposed to look like a large turnip. Instead, these appear to be some sort of yam. (That is, an actual yam, not a sweet potato, which for some reason is commonly called a yam in the US!)

Adding to the confusion, they appear to be coated with a thick layer of wax. I googled vegetables covered with wax, and all that shows up is lots of pages about rutabagas! Rutabagas, it turns out, are commonly waxed to keep them from drying out. I can't find any information about waxed yams, though. So, what are these things?

It looks like it could be yuca/cassava, based on the appearance alone. (Note: this is not the same as or related to yucca.) The picture on Wikipedia even shows a waxed version.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassava

It looks like taro root to me, if it's purple inside it probabls is.

https://www.google.com/search?q=taro&safe=active&rlz=1C1GCEA_enUS820US820&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjghf7L0OngAhUIip4KHe2kA-kQ_AUIDigB&biw=1091&bih=1388&dpr=1.1


Is there a product available that is pre-gelatinized starch and what product name is it sold with? I am trying to make packets of instant pudding that do not need heating, in order to thicken the mix to form a cold dessert. Some sanity has to be found in my kitchen, as most foods are home cooked because of my allergies.

I have attempted to test rice paper and tapioca flour (Australian brand and Chinese or East Asian product), potato starch, and puffed amaranth breakfast cereal, thinking that some value or gel might result from my efforts.  (It has not.)

Inquiries regarding pre-gelatinised products result in blunt dismissal, as those products here in Australia are reserved exclusively for medical reasons to celiacs or patients with problems swallowing, and supply is restricted to local chemists.

Is the supply of these products restricted by requirements for a doctor's prescription? If not, how or where can I obtain them?

Yeah, what you want is UltraTex-3 (or possibly the 8 or UltraSperse variants), from National Starch. Willpowder carries them: http://www.willpowder.net/tapioca.html

You can make something very much like instant pudding from just about any liquid using this stuff, and it can be cold. No heating required. Works best with a stick blender.

I am trying to make packets of instant pudding that do not need heating, in order to thicken the mix to form a cold dessert.

In case it does not have to be "instant" you could also use flax or chia seeds as a wholesome alternative. However, depending on your desired thickness thickening might take quite some while.


Why does my Velveeta queso dip get clumpier the longer it stays in the microwave? I had a bizarre experience with Velveeta this past weekend and was hoping you all could help me out.

I bought a block of Velveeta and some Rotel canned tomatoes to make a queso dip.  I microwaved the dip for about 8 minutes total (taking out after 5 to stir.)  After the 8 minutes were up, I started stirring the queso and noticed that the cheese was still clumpy.

So, I stuck the queso back in the microwave for four more minutes and when I took it out, it was worse than before.

This has never happened before, usually when it gets clumpy, you can just throw it in to the microwave for a little while longer and it comes out nice.

What happened here?  Do some foods become clumpy when they are cooked too long?  Could the Velveeta have been bad?  I've made this several times, and I don't think I did anything different here.

From what you're describing, I think the cheese (or cheese-like substance, in this case) 'broke' ... that is, the oil separated out of it.

I'd recommend:

Don't melt it at full power
Stir it multiple times during melting
Melt the cheese (or "cheese-food") seperately, then add the tomatoes, so the tomatoes don't get hot, causing uneven heating.

I'm not sure if there's a good way to recover cheese once it's broken.  Some starch will help keep dairy from breaking in the first place, but I don't think it'd help you in this  particular case.

Kraft has changed the velvetta. it is now crap instead of the cheese we all grew up with and love.  Look at all the complaints on the web.  Kraft is trying to save a little money and screwed up their product.  Kraft will not admit it, but they should fire the person that is responsible and go back to the old product we love.   I will never buy another box of Velvetta.
This happened at the end of of 2012 and all the velvetta now will not melt, the oil seperates out of it and it makes a gooey mess.


Some fishermen tell me I caught a Trout Salmon. Does this fish differ much from ordinary salmon? Like the title says, got a couple questions about the fish I just caught...

Firstly, is there anyway to confirm what type of fish this is? 'Ordinary salmon' or 'trout salmon'?

Lastly, does it differ much in taste from 'ordinary' salmon? I want to search for some good Salmon recipes but I want to be sure I'm looking at the right recipes for the right fish.

Cheers.

I've had Salmon Trout.  They are a pink fleshed trout, that mimics the flavour of Salmon somewhat.

My favourite preparation is to do it as a Yerevan Trout.  Essentially Roast the fish filets, prepare the sauce - Lemon, Butter, Capers, Artichokes, and any pan juice you can get.  Serve beside your favourite rice.

Steel head classification as members of the salmon family (Salmoniforms salmonidea, respectively the order and family) was changed in 1988, as approved by American Fisheries Society:  changed from:  Salmo gairoheri to become: Oncorhynchus mykiss, STEEL HEAD TROUT.  A fine multi-published scientist, avid fisherman, my father, contributed to this answer.


Is there an alternative to condensed milk? In Denmark we don't have condensed milk in our regular stores and I've actually only seen it in an UK-import store a few years ago. Is there an alternative to it or can you craft it with regular cooking equipment?

To make sweetened condensed milk:

  The best make-your-own version is to
  mix 1 cup of evaporated milk with
  1-1/4 cups of sugar in a saucepan,
  heat and stir until the sugar is
  completely dissolved, and let cool.

  If you don't have evaporated milk on
  hand either, you can make your own by
  slowly simmering any quantity of milk
  in a pan until it reduced by 60%, and
  then adding the sugar.

Source: http://www.ochef.com/125.htm

Another recipe that sounds like a lot more work and uses powdered milk: http://www.ehow.com/how_4903555_make-condensed-milk.html

This has some good to amazing reviews.

  Sweetened condensed milk substitute

  2 eggs
  1 c. brown sugar
  1 tsp. vanilla
  2 tbsp. flour
  1/2 tsp. baking powder
  1/4 tsp. salt

  Mix all ingredients and use as a substitute for sweetened condensed
  milk in recipes for pies, bars and desserts.


How can we prevent the steaming of tiffin when we put chapatis in? When we put hot chapatis in the tiffin (lunch box), the lunch box get steamed. The water from steam makes the chapatis soft and sticky. How can we prevent that from happening?

Anything hot in a closed environment will cause steam. Either cool it down first, or you can wrap them in a paper towel or kitchen paper that will absorb the moisture before putting in the container.

you can cool it down first because hot chapaties cause steam and then wrap in aluminium foil because foil makes your chapaties hot for long time.


Can cashew milk go bad, and how do you tell? How can you tell if your cashew milk has gone bad? If it is past the freshness code on package?

Yes, it can go bad.

The date on the package is one indication, but it may be a "best by"  date and does not guarantee the milk will go bad by then. It doesn't necessarily mean it is guaranteed safe, either, although most stores will give you a refund on product that spoils early.

Look for the following signs (written for almond milk, but cashew milk follows the same rules):

  the container seems abnormally bloated after opening
  mold is present
  any funky or pungent odors
  the product has curdled or is visibly thick and slimy (observe the consistency when putting)
  a change in color, as almond milk may appear more yellow when it has spoiled

Source

Smell it and you’ll know if it’s bad. They say regardless of expiration date, it’s good for one week after opening but I’ve had some 3 weeks   after opening and it’s still good so I guess just smell it to see


Can I thaw salmon directly in water? Some online advice says to put salmon in a bag before thawing it in cold water.
My question is:
Is it safe to omit the bagging, and instead thaw salmon directly in water, with no bag? If not, why?

The salmon will get water logged and mushy (and consequently release a lot of water during the cooking process) if you omit the bag. It's not unsafe, but it will decrease the quality of the salmon.

Cooking fish in water is called poaching and if done properly will give a fine flavored dish. If you have a large fillet of salmon and you need to defrost quickly, just place in a polythene bag and leave in a bowl of water. It will not harm the flesh and the salmon will still taste great when cooked.


Is it safe to not wash mushrooms? Most chefs stress the fact that white button mushrooms, and others, should not be washed to be cleaned. They say to either lightly brush them or just pat them with a cloth or paper towel to get the "dirt" off to clean them, and then cook or eat them raw. Do not "wash" them, to clean them, because the chefs says the mushrooms get waterlogged, and they believe something happens to the taste.

Well, as a little girl my Dad took me to a mushroom farm. It was disgusting because of the smell of manure.  The mushrooms were in trays, enveloped totally in the manure in trays, that were stacked high according to the sizes and I don't remember what else.  We were in darkness, and my Dad would go from one area to the next buying trays from all over. Years later, I became the buyer and I don't remember much other than the awful smell, the sizes, the darkness and how much I still loved to eat mushrooms. To prepare I washed them with water, got off all the excess manure, and depending on how the mushroom was to be prepared, stuffed, quick boiled in lots of salt then kept in that same salted water to be eaten with sour cream, fried with butter, prepared them many ways.

My question is, why do chefs insist that you should not wash, only use their method, lightly brush or towel off the mushroom? Isn't safety a reason to wash? And washing doesn't change the flavor, right?

I have read a couple of experiments (in Dutch so I will not link them here) where people cooked the same dish from the same shrooms, with one batch brushed and the other washed.

The washed batch did need higher temparature to actually fry, instead of just boiling in their own moisture and the texture in the finished dish remained different. There does seem to to be some merit to the culinary traditions here.

As for the safety aspects, perhaps this will ease your mind somewhat:

Research minimizes effects of federal produce standards on mushroom industry:

  But a new study shows that heat generated during the traditional composting process -- originally developed to kill insect and fungal pests of mushrooms -- is adequate for eliminating human pathogens that might be present, according to researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

If you got sick from eating a dish, the cause may not have been in the nutrition beds the shrooms were grown on.

I also believe that we have so many kids who have allergies now because of all this washing, sterilising stuff. We have become almost paranoid.  Mushrooms are grown in sterilised compost. People have collected them from woodlands for centuries.  The trick is to know the edible ones from the poisonous. Basic cleaning is enough. If you peel them, you throw out the best taste and many of the vitamins. I don't eat grit but a bit of dirt never hurt anyone.  Chefs have to have qualifications in food hygiene and they know what tastes best.


What is the world's hottest pepper? I'm growing some bhut jolokia peppers, and they are almost ready for harvesting.

However, I've since seen that the naga viper pepper has beaten the bhut jolokia as the hottest pepper.  I've also seen that a variety of Trinidad Scorpion pepper has beaten out the naga viper.

The store I bought my bhut jolokia from now is selling "the world's hottest pepper" called naga jolokia.

Is the naga jolokia the same as the naga viper?  Is it the same as the bhut jolokia?

I understand that the naga viper was an unstable hybrid.  Presumably this means that it cannot be reliably sold for home gardeners.  Is the Trinidad Scorpion variety stable?  If not, how do the stable varieties compare with the naga viper and bhut jolokia?

To summarize the questions:

What is a naga jolokia, and where does it stand in comparison to
the other "contender" peppers?
What is the world's hottest pepper?
What is the hottest pepper that the average home gardener can purchase, and then grow
at home (local climate permitting)?

What is the world's hottest pepper?

According to the Scovile Scale the hottest pepper is Bhut Jolokia. The one you are currently growing

Scovile Scale Visualized

  What is a naga jolokia, and where does it stand in comparison to the
  other "contender" peppers?

Bhut Jolokia or Naga Jologia

According to some sources, they indicate that Bhut and Naga are the same pepper. Naga means Ghost.

MSNBC has a great article covering this world record chili:

  The pepper is known by any number of names across India’s northeast.
  It’s the “poison chili” in some areas, the “king of the chilis” in
  others. Just to the south of Assam is Nagaland, it’s eaten in nearly
  every meal. As a result, it is often called the Naga mircha — the
  “Naga chili.”

A good crop of red thin Thai peppers.  They vary,but when  they are strong they are untouchable with a distint aftertaste


Cellophane lids on jam I've made some apricot jam and I'm happy with the consistency.  I heated the jars and filled them with hot jam. Unfortunately the jam cooled before I got the lid on.  Can  I put a cellophane lid on cold jam?

If you want the result to be shelf stable, you need to follow a proper procedure to either process the jam in a water bath or in a pressure cooker. Just placing the lids on the jam (either hot or cold) is not considered safe. Your jam is fine if you want to store it in the refrigerator, but not otherwise.

Using cellophane with hot food is not ideal, since it could release potentially dangerous chemicals into your food. It's designed to handle room-temperatures or below, not higher.
It also depends on what kind of cellophane you are using, since they don't have all the same composition. Some are more prone to release chemicals into food than others (go with PVC-free ones to be safe)
I would not recommend using cellophane for long-term storage anyway.


What is the difference between Grills, Barbecues, Broiling e.t.c.? Possible Duplicate:
  Translating cooking terms between US / UK / AU / CA / NZ

What is the difference between Grills, Barbecues, Broiling e.t.c.?

Note: I plan to post my own answer, but you're welcome to post yours.

As Mien pointed out in the comments, these terms can vary based on where you are from. My answer is based on the U.S. version of the terms.

Grilling: To cook with direct exposure to heat, usually from below.

Broiling: To cook with direct exposure to heat, usually from above.

BBQing: To cook with indirect heat using wood in order to add a smoke flavor.

In many parts of the U.S. grilling and BBQing are used synonymously, in which it mostly implies grilling meat outdoors, although, as you can see by the definitions above, that isn't entirely accurate.

Using Ryan's definitions for clarity -

Grilling: To cook with direct exposure to heat, usually from below.

Broiling: To cook with direct exposure to heat, usually from above.

BBQing: To cook with indirect heat using wood in order to add a smoke flavor.

I have to make the point that broiling can be done with electricity, whereas grilling is by definition by something burning (in my case it is usually lighter fluid).

If you power your grill with charcoal, you can get that smoky flavour by adding woodchips into the fuel - to my mind, that is barbequeing, even if the heating is direct.


How do I make Crispy Gnocchi This is turning out to be harder than I expected. I had gnocchi at a restaurant which had a crispy outside. I fail to consistently achieve this.

I have tried shallow frying — gnocchi just absorbs all the oil.

Pan frying — gnocchi seems to cook through before getting crispy.

Any help?

If the exterior of the gnocchi you had at the restaurant was crispy in the sense that it had a crunch to it, then they probably dropped it in a deep fryer for a minute or so to crisp it up.

I usually saute mine in clarified butter to brown the exterior and form a crust but it's not necessarily "crispy".

Regardless of what you're frying and whether you're shallow or deep-frying it, the problem of absorbing oil and turning out greasy is due to not having your oil hot enough, or adding too much food at once and dropping the temperature too much.

You usually want to fry between 350 and 375 degrees.  If you're using a thermostat controlled fryer or electric skillet, then I suggest setting the temperature at 365 degrees so you still have room for up to a 15 degree drop in temperature without detriment to the food.

When food is fried the oil heats up the moisture inside the food product which then turns to steam and forces its way out.  As the steam pushes outward it creates the visible bubbles we see.  It's the force of the steam pushing outward that keeps the oil from going in to the food.  As the temperature drops and thus the pressure from the steam, or the moisture has cooked away and food isn't removed when its done, the food starts to absorb the oil and turn greasy.

Actually in order to deep fry gnocchi you should not boil it prior to frying at all. Water causes the creation of too much steam, the gnocchi will either

Break apart in the oil if not hot enough
Pop and try to kill you if hot enough or too hot

You should freeze it instead, removing it from the freezer right before frying and do not let them sit to room temp, the colder they are before you fry them the crispier they'll be once done. Most people who routinely deep fry at faires would know this; its not really "common cooking knowledge" or whatever.


Why does plastic never dry properly in a dishwasher? Whenever I get tasked with unloading the dishwasher, I'm always amazed at the amount of water that's still stuck (always in droplets) to our plastic kitchen utensils and storage containers.

We have a dishwasher with three racks, but it doesn't seem to matter which rack you use, plastic spatula's in the top cutlery rack, plastic containers or cups in the middle rack or our plastic cutting boards or plates in the bottom rack, all are equally wet when unloading the dishwasher, while the regular cutlery, glasses, metal pans and ceramic plates are all perfectly dry.

Why do the plastic kitchen utensils never dry properly in the dishwasher? And is there anything that can be done so the plastic does dry in the dishwasher? (besides using a towel or just waiting three days before unloading)

In addition to the lower heat capacity (see other answer), a main reason, quite counterintuitive, why plastics don't dry well is that they're hydrophobic. That's right: they keep water sticking to them because they're water repellent (but not completely water repellent).

The reason for this strange behaviour is that any small amount of water on the surface of plastics immediately contracts to a compact droplet. This minimises contact with the plastic, but also with air, which is the problem: for efficient evaporation, you need a large air-to-liquid surface. You do get such a large surface on glass, ceramic and metal, because these are (at least when freshly cleaned) hydrophilic, so the water stretches out to a thin film coating a whole lot of the surface.

Not so with plastics. Only with some shaking will the droplets start running down the surface, and may combine with other drops and then drip off. With super-hydrophobic materials you'd be ok again because even tiny drops would immediately pour down, but most plastics are exactly at the sour spot: too hydrophobic for evaporation, but still not hydrophobic enough for a lotus effect.

Melamine resins tend to be among the better plastics in this regard, as they're still pretty hydrophilic. Still, they tend to dry only incompletely, probably because of the low heat capacity.

To answer you question, we have to take it from a scientific point of view. Its been a while since I did A level chemistry but i think i know enough to give you a simple enough answer. The atoms of hydrogen and oxygen in water, as well as hydrogen and carbon (and other elements which will form the plastic, while hydrogen and carbon are the main ones) give out intermolecular forces- van der waal/dipole dipole forces, hydrogen bond (still a force, but a strong one of that) and temporary dipole forces. They occur due to the attraction between atoms, which will all have different arrangements of their electron shells, number of protons and number of neutrons. Hence different atoms have different levels of attraction.
Secondly, static also builds up on plastics when put under energy, thermal in this case, so the water is attracting to the plastic in clumps. You can test this with a balloon rubbed over the carpet, then run under the tap. some water will remain.

To conclude, The plastic and water are just attracting to each other, by intermolecular forces as well as static forces. Think of it like the static collects at several particular points, then the intermolecular forces also help to keep it together.


Is a steak OK to eat if it fell down, but I cooked it afterwards? If I am cooking steaks at a grill and one of them accidentally falls down on the floor/ground, is it safe for me to wipe it and cook it for a certain amount of time (till it is pretty well done) and then eat it? Or should I throw it away?

Sure it's safe. You are about to char the outside at very high temperatures, nothing's going to survive that, so cleaning it is more about flavor than safety. I wouldn't just wipe it though, clean it with water or you might get a dirtier steak flavor than you'd like.

However it's proven false, i still would like to mention the following:

In our country we apply the 5 Second Rule, which is very populair.

It basicly comes down to this: Whatever kind of food you drop on the floor, if you pick it up in 5 seconds, it's ready to go!

Never had any complaints ;-)


Can UHT milk be used to make yogurt? So I know you can't use UHT milk to make cheese, because of the way the proteins get denatured at that temperature.  But can you use it to make yogurt?

UHT (Ultra High Temperature) processing kills all the pathogens in the milk, so it can be conserved for a long time. However to make yogurt you add bacteria (lactobacillus), so if there aren't other microorganism it should be even better.

I have been making home-made yogurt for a month on an every-day basis.

I tried UHT once and it was extremely watery and flaky that I threw it away.

I have since sticked with fresh (skimmed/semi skimmed/whole) milk, which works perfectly.

I do notice that different brand of milk give a different texture too.

Puzzled, I searched on Google trying to find an answer why UHT milk can't be used, and found this. I do not have an answer myself but I thought it is helpful to share my own experience with making yogurt.


Omelet help.... gah why is it so hard? Possible Duplicate:
  How to succeed with making omelette

Omelets continue to elude me... It appears to be such a simple concept, but I always end up making scramble eggs with the mushrooms and cheese. Here's what I do

Mix egg and milk
Pour into skillet on low-med heat, and it fills the entire bottom
let it cook a little, then throw on the extras (mushroom, or meat and blackbean)

Then it goes awry... i see uncooked egg so I'm hesitant to fold it over, and if I leave it to cook i'm scared of burning the egg. I'll eventually fold it with runny egg, then i think to flip the whole thing to cook it some more and then i breaks apart. or i'll watch it then it gets really questionable in the area of over-cooked, so I mash it up into scrambled eggs..

What should I be doing? Any tricks or secrets to the basic task of making an omelet?

Cover it!

The secret to omelette not having a runny middle, and being able to handle it without it breaking is to use a loose fitting lid (or another pan, upside down) as a cover for most of, if not all of the initial cooking

This in effect steams the top of the egg, ensuring it is cooked before the bottom burns

This also increases the fluffiness of the egg :-)

You will then be able to fold or flip with ease

Needed Items

2 Eggs
2 onion cut it in to small pieces
needed salt
some butter
Mix eggs onion needed salt
Make sure the skillet is hot,put some butter in the skillet and also pour egg mixture in the skillet
lat it cook for 20 seconds


How can I attach printed rice paper decorations to cakes / cookies? I bought some printed rice paper decorations (flat circles of rice paper printed with edible ink) for my son's birthday party. I'm not sure what the best way is to attach them to cakes / cookies and I don't have a lot of spare time to experiement.

The options I can think of are:

make my own cookies and press them in to the cookie - either before
baking or more likely after baking but while still warm and soft
place the rice paper circle on top of a pre-baked cookie or small flat-topped cake and pipe some form of icing or frosting around the
edge to hold it in place
pile butter cream icing on top of a small cake, press the rice paper circle onto the butter cream icing

What I ideally want is to be able to do this the day before they are needed, so as well as being held properly in place, I also would like the rice paper not to go soggy / curl up and the ink not to run or leak out of the rice paper.

When I've seen them used, they first frosted the cake, smoothed it out, then placeed the rice paper on top.

My understanding is that the moisture in the frosting can end up melting the rice paper, so that it basically disappears into the frosting, with the ink effectively transfering into the frosting.

As I've never done it myself, I have no idea if there are any special tricks to it, or if you need to use a particular frosting / icing recipe so that the paper will melt away.

update: after a little research, I have reason to believe that normal rice paper won't disolve into the cake but there are special 'frosting sheets' that will.  another recomendation was to leave enough white space around the image so that you can cover the edge of the sheet with a border if it starts to curl up.

I use rice paper discs a lot. I cut out rolled fondant circles, put edible glue on the fondant discs, then put the rice paper disc on top. Works a treat - just let them dry for a few days then use.


Ways to speed up this chai recipe? This site has what looks to be a good recipe for homemade "Chai" spiced tea; however, it requires a lot of prep and won't work with my current routine, which is the modern English style tea preparation for loose-leaf tea: boil water in an electric kettle, pour into pre-warmed teapot with leaves, steep, dump into travel mug, add milk and sugar, run out the door late as usual. Total time: about 5-6 minutes.

Is the boiling of milk with spices necessary, or can I dump pre-ground spices into my brewed tea along with milk and sugar? Can I boil a large batch of milk with spices and store that in the fridge and add to brewed tea instead of my usual vanilla soymilk?

EDIT: I appear to have misread part of the instructions; it calls for boiling water with spices then adding milk, rather than boiling milk with spices directly. The comments, however, insist that the milk needs to come to a proper boil as well. So, the real question appears to be: is that true, or can I toss the spices in with the leaves in my pot while the tea steeps and add milk as usual later?

That recipe actually says there are two ways you can prepare this:

  There are two ways to do this: throw just about everything in a pot of
  water and simmer, then add the milk, tea and sweetener and brew for a
  few minutes; or, let the spices soak overnight in the water then
  simmer in the morning with your tea leaves and milk.

(emphasis mine)

Have you tried the latter? That way you still only have to heat things up once.

I'd be hesitant to boil milk with spices and then store it cold, reheating again. If you're using dairy milk, that is. If you're using anything other than non-fat (skim) milk, you'll get a "skin" on the top of the milk when you're boiling it - that's one of the classic signs of masala chai for me. But anyway, it becomes substantially less appetizing if it has time to cool into globules and is then reheated again. I'm not sure what problems, if any, you'd encounter using non-dairy milk like almond or soy.

You could dump the pre-ground spices into your brewed tea with milk and sugar, but the flavor profile will be a little different. Boiling the spices with the milk and tea gives everything time to meld nicely and provide a really smooth flavor blend. But I don't see any especially compelling reason that you couldn't do it.

I would like to point out, though, that boiling enough water for a travel mug's worth of tea doesn't take any more time to do on the stove than it does in my electric kettle. Adding milk shouldn't make too much difference; I'm willing to bet that after you get familiar with the routine, you can follow this recipe and still have it take 5-6 minutes. :)

Purists will insist that the spices must be boiled with the water, but those are the same people who would scoff at you adding cold milk to your tea in the first place. There's no reason why you can't, other than it might cool down the rest of your tea.

Any spice has chemicals that give aroma / flavor. To get the aroma / flavor, one has to boil with preferably with water. Therefore, its better to boil the spice / tea with water, which you can freeze it. When required, can add sugar / milk (hot or cold).


Why do my egg whites separate after whipping? Every time I try to whip egg whites, I seem to end up with the same problem. After a good bit of strenuous beating with the whisk, the egg whites finally reach the "firm peak" stage. I then go grab something (last night, it was the chili peppers to coat in egg), and right away the egg has separated into fluffy white peaks on top, and liquid on the bottom.
What's going on? Is there a trick to keeping the egg white a uniform texture?

This is the nature of meringue: they will start to fall apart as soon as you stop whipping.  There are a few tricks to help it hold longer, but in general you want to have EVERYTHING ready to go as soon as the meringue is whipped.

To help stabilize the meringue you can:

Use a copper or SILVER-plated bowl to whip, or add a tiny amount of powdered copper supplement from a health food store
Acidify it slightly: add 1/8 tsp cream of tartar or 1/2 tsp lemon juice per white, before beating
Let the bowl warm to room temperature, which increases the ability of the whites to take in air
Ensure there is absolutely no yolk in with the whites.  The fat greatly destabilizes the foam.

Now for WHY these tricks work:

I'm going to quote heavily from Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking", as it does a wonderful job explaining meringues and other whipped egg whites:

  Like the head on a beer or a cappucino, an egg foam is a liquid--the
  white--filled with a gas --air-- in such a way that the mixuture of
  liquid and gas keeps its shape, like a solid.  It's a mass of
  bubbles, with air inside each bubble, and the white spread out into a
  thin film to form the bubble walls.  And the makeup of these liquid
  walls determines how long a foam can stand up.  Pure water has such a
  strong surface tension--such strong attractive forces among its
  molecules--that it immediately starts to pull  itself together into a
  compact puddle; and it's so runny that it puddles almost immediately.
  The many nonwater molecules in egg white both reduce the surface
  tension of the water they float in, and make it less runny, and thus
  allow the bubbles to survive long enough to accumulate in a sizeable
  mass.  What gives the mass of foam a useful kitchen lifetime is the
  white's team of proteins.

Whisking unfolds these proteins, primarily globulins and ovotranferrin, which bond to each other and stabilize the bubble walls.  Cooking will evaporate the water and unfold ovoalbumin, creating a rigid and permanent protein network.

However, the same proteins can ALSO destabilize the foam if they bond too tightly. "The protein network begins to collapse when too many of these bonds accumulate and the proteins cluster together too tightly" (page 102). In the case of egg proteins, one of the strongest bonds is a disulfide bond between the sulfur-containing amino acids, cysteine and methionine. Eggs contain copious quantities of these amino acids, which are why they produce such a potent stench when they spoil; the sulfur is converted to malodorous sulfur compounds, particularly hydrogen sulfide.

Copper, silver, and acids stabilize the egg foam by preventing the formation of these disulfide bonds. To quote Harold McGee (page 103):

  It turns out that along with a few other metals, copper has the useful
  tendency to form extremely tight bonds with reactive sulfur groups: so
  tight that the sulfur is essentially preventing from reacting with
  anything else.  So the presence of copper in foaming eggs whites
  essentially eliminates the strongest kind of protein bond that can
  form, and makes it harder for the proteins to embrace each other too
  tightly.

McGee also notes that silver has the same property of inhibiting disulfide bonding. Acid achieves the same goal of reducing disulfide bonding, but works slightly differently:

  The sulfur bonds form when the sulfur-hydrogen (S-H) groups on two
  different protein molecules shed their hydrogens and form a
  sulfur-sulfur (S-S) connection with each other.  The addition of an
  acid boosts the number of free-floating hydrogen (H) ions in the egg
  white, which makes it much harder for the S-H groups to shed their own
  H, and so slows the sulfur bonding down to a crawl.


What's the difference between a French oven and a Dutch oven? I've been haunting the discount cookware sites looking for Le Creuset pieces that won't put me in the poorhouse. I found two pieces that are similar size and price - one is a French oven and the other is a Dutch oven. There's nothing in the descriptions of them that tell me what the difference is between the two. Can anyone clarify?

Edited to add specific pieces

2 quart French oven

2.5 quart Dutch oven

Ok, so the "Smart XXX Alec" in me wanted to start out by saying: "The French oven is more arrogant and less useful."  But I refrained until I learned I was right.

Looking at these two similar products Dutch Oven vs. French Oven I notice that there is not much difference except that the "French Oven" is 4 times the price & only good to 350 degrees in the oven where the Dutch Oven is rated for 400 degrees (F).

So I think I have to stand by my original thought.

I think the French oven might be enamel coated, while the Dutch oven isn't.


Making madeleines without the special pan? I don't have the special pan or any cupcake or muffin tins.

Can I just plop spoonfuls on a cookie sheet? Does anyone know whether I have to alter the recipe? If so, how?

I have never made madeleines myself, but looking at the recipe and reading Elendil's concerns about the batter running, I would think you could fashion an impromptu "madeleine pan" out of aluminum foil.  It won't be the easiest thing in the world, and you're not going to get the perfect shell look, but I think you'll be able to get the right general shape and depth with a little craftwork.

These look like something I would love to make, so I did a little research and a few people said they poured the batter into a sheet pan (in a very thin layer) and then cut them into squares after.  Not exactly the same final product, but if you're dying to use the batter I think it would still taste great.  As Elendil suggested, the people who said they were able to make them on a cookie sheet found that they were very flat and crispy (though still tasty).

We're making them tonight using "whoopie" sheet mold - 12/- almost the same depth

They turned out great.  - The 15 minutes cooks.com recipe requires is a bit much for my "hot" oven.

Have to make 48 - we'll see what happens with the next batch. to be continued


What are the keys to leopard-spotting pizza crust? What are the most important factors to achieving leopard-spots on pizza cornicione?  I've tried so many different things but still can't get to the level of consistent leopard spots that I've seen others create.  I want a pale crust except very distinct charred leopard spots.  I do not want the whole crust to be brown or charred spots >1".  What am I doing wrong?

Recipe:

500g Antimo Caputo or KA Bread
360g-380g Water (72-76% hydration)
16-20g Salt
1g Active Dry Yeast

Process:

Day 1 Combine either by autolyse, stand mixer, or hand knead
Day 2 Ball into three equal parts ~300g/ea
Day 3-4 Hand stretch being careful to not push the cornicione much, bake at 1,000°F (dome), 800°F (floor) for 90-120sec in a Blackstone oven (yes it is possible in this oven)

This is what I've been able to achieve thus far, the pizza on the left is close but I ended up with 3 big burnt areas out of the frame that were undesirable:

This is what I'd like to achieve:

Images from pizza_jew and fortina pizza

I would guess the secret is having your dough be irregularly textured.

The spots have to be cooking, and scorching, before the rest of the crust is even browning.  You might be able to achieve this by deliberately texturing your dough, but I expect the original reason was gas bubbles trapped just under the surface of the dough, which blistered and burned quickly due to thinness of the dough and heating faster than the rest of the crust.

So how to get this blistering?  you would need very well developed gluten, to hold thin, fragile bubbles right on the surface.  You would need very gentle handling for the crust - resting and raising again might let your dough puff up again from rougher handling, but it would probably tend to be smaller bubbles and even puffing, not great surface ones.  And you would need very active yeast, to raise great bubbles on the surface.

How exactly you get these factors will depend on your recipe and your tolerance.  You might make your dough from a preferment or a series of them, so the yeasts have time to develop better and will be more active, or you might use more yeast in general to make the dough rise more quickly to form bigger, irregular bubbles instead of small even ones.  Kneading your dough better for good gluten development might help it trap the gas bubbles, even right on the surface.  You could try long, cold rises for your dough, which should develop gluten and yeast activity better than shorter, warm rises.  You might handle your dough very carefully around the edges, using your hands to stretch rather than a rolling pin or similar, to keep as much air trapped in the crust as possible.

You might just cheat, and pinch up knobs, slice flaps, or inject air into bubbles (with a syringe, maybe, I know they're available for injecting marinades) to artificially texture the surface of your crust with thinner or upraised areas that will brown and blacken quickly - which will get your your dark spots with probably less effort than reworking your dough texture, but may not get as much of the texture or taste you're looking for, that happens to go with your spots.  It's all up to you.

Try cold fermentation, then take the dough out one hour before cooking. You'll get the leopard spots.


Is it safe to eat raw fish? Raw chicken is generally considered not safe to eat. A lot of people eat sushi/sashimi though, and they are made from raw fish. So, how come that's safe (if it is)?

I discussed a similar subject in this question: What exactly is "Sushi Grade" fish?

Raw fish isn't safe to eat if it's just been sitting around.  However, the raw fish used in sushi/sashimi has been frozen (typically flash-frozen) in order to kill any parasites, making it as safe as any other food.

Most distributors of sashimi also have their own methods and internal regulations to ensure food safety, but specifics are understandably hard to come by.  Suffice it to say, it's far safer to eat properly-prepared nigiri or sashimi than it is to eat an undercooked hamburger.

Raw fish meat and chicken can cause intestinal worms wich create in your stomach in order to eat all undisposed fish meat or chicken that your body has not fully gotten rid of . They help by eating these leftover subjects but are pretty wierd to think about having and can start eating the body itself it's best to never eat raw fish chicken or meat of any kind and also to make sure it's fully cooked.


Cheesecake in or next to waterbath I've heard of two separate ways to use a water bath when cooking a cheesecake: placing the cheesecake in the waterbath, or placing a roasting pan full of water on the bottom rack of the oven, with the cheesecake on the top rack. I like the idea of not putting my cheesecake in the water, which avoids the need to wrap the pan in foil. Do these two separate methods create any discernible difference in the final result? Is one better than the other?

The purpose of the water is to cook the custard slowly- essentially poaching it. It takes out some insurance against it overheating and breaking.

Suspending the cheesecake over the water would not have the same effect- steam can get hotter than the curdling temperature of eggs. It would be a thermal mass that might even out some temperature variation in your oven and it would keep things humid. If your oven is working well these effects aren't needed.

Plenty of cheesecake recipes don't take out the water-bath-insurance. My opinion is that suspending the cake above the pan would not be helpful.

If you add a tbsp of All purpose flour to your Cheesecake batter ans suspend it over a water bath, itll come out just fine. otherwise, just wrap the pan in aluminum foil and put directly in the bain marie. works just as great. the tbsp of flour prevents the cracks.


How do you reduce static in a coffee grinder? Is there a way to reduce/eliminate the static buildup in a burr grinder?  I've tried a few different coffee grinders and inevitably on removing the grinds bin, I get a spray of coffee all over the counter.

My grounds bin has a lid. So while the grounds still collect static, they don't fly all over the place when I remove the bin from the grinder.

Giving the bin few sharp taps on the counter top prior to opening seems to shake off most of what clings to the top and sides. Then I tap out the grounds, wipe out the bin with a napkin, and I'm ready for the next morning.

Beyond that, try switching up your coffee. The cheap "8 O'Clock" stuff I keep on reserve is terribly staticy, while the beans I roast myself don't have nearly the trouble. I tend to enjoy a lighter roast, so keep that in mind - you might benefit from grinding beans with just a bit higher moisture content (of course, if you have a strong preference for dark roasts, this doesn't help much).

Before grinding, wipe the hopper and the brush bristles with a dryer anti-static sheet.  Wipe the bristles thoroughly.


What is the most efficient way to squeeze water out of cooked spinach? I'm cooking a bunch of spinach for making a spinach and ricotta filling. I need to get as much water as possible out of the spinach, and I'd prefer not to make a big mess in the process. In the past, I've wrapped a few handfuls at a time in a towel and squeezed out the liquid. This leaves me with a messy, green stained towel and requires a lot of twisting that doesn't seem maximally effective.

Use a potato ricer. Just fill it up with a big handful of spinach, and give it a good squeeze in the sink, or over a bowl if you like to drink spinach water. It extracts a ton of liquid quickly, and is a breeze to clean up when you are done.

I Think run it through a pasta machine, wrap in cheese cloth. Just came to me . haven't tried yet, on my way to the store to buy one.


What can I substitute for dairy products in kosher meat dishes? I have converted a number of traditional dishes to kosher (cannot mix meat and dairy ingredients) but have trouble finding substitutes for dairy ingredients that have the correct consistency or flavor.  I have tried a number of soy-based products, like sour supreme, work great if you are not cooking them but I find that many of them don't handle high temperatures well.  Does anyone have any other suggestions so I can make beef stroganoff or veal parmesan.

In the Israeli Army I've had a veal "parmesan" made with a tahini sauce. It's a very different dish, of course. It's also common to get beef/noodle recipes that don't include the dairy component.

In general you're often better off substituting the meat (for fish, or a vegetarian patty like seitan) or working off of different recipes. Trying to make kosher cheeseburgers (and putting margarine on the shabbat table) are the hallmarks of the newly religious.

Beware most soy milk and almond milk is Dairy - they have milk in them or milk by products!!!!!


What oil is best for seasoning a cast-iron skillet I just cleaned up a rusty cast-iron skillet and I would like to season it. The thing is that I don't have lard handy and I'm wondering whether any of my other oils and fats would do.

I have: canola, olive, sesame and almond oil.

Also, I've heard that appying the oil and reheating multiple times improves the seasoning. Is it true? How many times does it make sense to repeat the process?

This question has been answered several times as part of more general questions about seasoning. See the (closely) related links in the related questions list.
This one in particular:
What's the best way to season a cast iron skillet?

Specifically about oil- you want to use an oil that has a high iodine value:
http://www.journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_yield.html#highiodine

Of those you listed canola (rapeseed) would be highest. If you can find soybean oil it would be even better.

These oils polymerize more easily. To create an even coating with good adhesion, multiple thin coats work well. I have read of people doing as many as 6 coats but, in my opinion, you should do at least 2 or 3.

For seasoning cast iron cookware use Mineral Oil (food grade)


What nut did I find? I ask this knowing that it's possibly borderline off-topic, but I don't see a Botany SE site where I could ask, so...

A few days ago I stumbled (literally) upon an odd little fruit that had fallen onto the sidewalk. It fascinated me because it had three large lobes and a hard, mottled outer texture. I couldn't figure out what it was, so I brought it home and promptly forgot about it for a couple days.

When I picked it up today, one lobe had softened, and with a little pressure I was able to pop it off. The lobe contained a smooth, dark-brown nut!

Upon examination this reminded me of a chestnut. I broke off another lobe and found a second pod:

I have no idea what these are; they appear very similar to chestnuts but are missing the pointed tip and spiny shell. I don't know what to make of them.

Does anybody know what these are? More to the point for this site, are they (safely) edible? I noticed a lot more had fallen nearby, and I'm not above gathering some if they're tasty.

That is a buckeye, fruit of Aesculus glabra, also known as the Ohio buckeye tree. The seeds (the "buckeye" part) look sort of like a horse chestnut, but the fruit is different.

Do not eat it!

  The fruits contain tannic acid, and are poisonous to cattle, and humans, as is the foliage. (Wikipedia)

(You can, however, make buckeye candy: peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate.)

This is a buckeye still on the tree, as well as some leaves if you'd like to revisit the source to verify:

These are what we Brits would call Conkers!
Only we use a close relative - the horse chestnut. The schoolyard game of Conkers involves drilling a hole, threading a string with a knot and taking it in turns to smash your opponent's conker.
Surfice to say that there is very little use for them aside from the wartime production of acetone.
Horse chestnut trees are so abundant here that it seems a shame a more useful tree couldn't have been planted.


What happened to my soaked almonds? I bought some packed almonds and soaked them in water for about 24 hours. I then removed the water with a sieve, cleaned the bowl and put the almonds back. I covered the bowl with a paper towel and left them for about 48 hours. I then placed them in a plastic container and when I opened it the next day, the almonds were covered with a web-like substance.

Were the almonds infected by fungus? How could this have happened?

They are covered by mold, a type of fungus. What has happened is, mold loves moisture and when you closed the lid on almonds which had a good amount of moisture in them, the mold had the right conditions to grow.

Note: You should discard them all.

And next time, you'd like to have soaked almonds, it's better to keep them in the fridge at all times, as @rumtscho has aptly remarked. This basically means, you should also soak them in the fridge, and once you strain and discard the water you should continue keeping it in the fridge. Basically treating them as perishable food at all times, and discarding them (if any left ;)) after 5 days...

If you were trying to create almond flour or something, after washing them you should peel off the skin and dry them fast. Under a fan or in a lukewarm oven (200 f) If you allow moisture to stay on it for long time fungus forms as happened now.


How to convert between flours? As we've seen in previous questions, certain flours have different gluten contents. Time and time again, I find reviews of King Arthur Flour recipes indicating that I really must use their flour if I want the recipe to come out right, as any other flour will make it come out horribly wrong. Is there a way to convert a bread recipe to use a more widely available brand, given that my supermarket actually sells gluten in a bag?

ETA: Also, is there a way to find out what makes a given brand different so I can evaluate it?

If you are simply looking to convert gluten contents then you can certainly always go higher by adding the correct proportion of vital wheat gluten to dough to get the percentage of gluten that you want.

However there are many other differences between flour bags in terms of processing.  How is the flour ground?  What wheat variety is it from?  Is it white or whole?  There are a lot of variables.

I do speak as someone who has found that Gold Medal is perfectly acceptable for all my baking needs and also routinely uses store brand flour.  Personally I suggest simply trying whatever flour you want to try (not including substituting  bread for cake or something along those lines, that definitely will cause issues) and seeing how the recipe goes.  Determine if a higher-end flour brand is for you yourself.

Our Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book (very old), is is a 5 ring binder with stuff written on the inside of the cover--very useful stuff including a generic answer to this question.

Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book
"Emergency Substitutions"
1 cup cake flour = 1 cup minus 2 tabelspoons all-puropse flour


What is what I'm doing called? At restaurants, I know that meats are often cooked by searing or grilling the meat to "mark" it, and then it is put in an oven for some time to be cooked. I also understand that this is done partly for consistency, partly for convenience, and partly for speed.

I've been cooking chicken in a similar manner at home, especially now that it's winter. I season the chicken, then sear both sides in a little bit of oil in a pan (a few minutes per side), and then I put the whole pan in the oven at 425 or so for about 10 minutes.

The chicken always comes out nicely moist and flavorful, and I am happy with the results.

However, when asked what kind of chicken it is, I have no idea what to call it. I'm not really baking it, I'm not frying it, I'm not broiling it, and I'm not roasting it.

...

Or am I?

What is this cooking method called?

This technique—searing or marking on the grill or stove top, then finishing in an oven—is called pan roasting.

Searing, often called "sealing," forms a crust on the outside of the meat to seal in the juices while roasting. Some juice will still seep out into the roasting pan, but far less than meat that is not "sealed." "Pan roasting" means it´s cooked on top of the stove in a covered pan; "rossting" is done in the oven.


Is not using soap when washing cast iron pans safe? Most advice on cast iron pan care says that most of the time you shouldn't use soap when washing a pan. However, that may leave some residual fat/grease from your cooking on the pan.

It can be fat/oil with a low smoke point which is going to smoke then next time you heat the pan.

Would it be safe to cook in such smoking pan? Should you burn it till it stops smoking? Is this smoke in the kitchen safe for your lungs?

That residual fat is leftover from what you cooked in there before, so it would only be an issue after cooking something with a very low smoke point, washing the pan,  then cooking something with a high smoke point.

Wiping the pan with a paper towel will get rid of the vast majority of this, and if you dry it over heat you can carry on to cook off the last little bit, like a sort of half-baked or top-up seasoning. Doing this before storage gives the smoke smell time to clear before you next use it, but this should be minimal if you cook it off gently. I recommend turning on the cooker hood extractor if you have one.

I like the heat-retention of cast iron but I've gone over to enamelled (le Creuset). I still use a carbon steel wok that needs reseasoning after using the traditional metal spatula, so I actually rinse, dry with heat, wipe over with oil and heat.

Never put soap in or on a well seasoned cast iron pot or pan. Scrape them out rinse them with water. Then wipe out with a course towel or paper towel. Heat on burner till warm to remove water. It removes the oil to use soap in them. Every now & then wipe or scrub them out with a old rag with salt in it & oil on it. A old sock works well for this. course salt.


Do Pineapples Ripen After They Are Picked Do pineapples ripen after they are picked?  I had alway thought you could leave them on the counter to ripen, however, I recently heard they don't ripen after they are picked.

Pineapple softens, but not sweeten on shelf ripening.

Fruit ripening is usually due to exposure of unsaturated hydrocarbons e.g. ethylene. This phenomenon occurs in fruit known as "climacteric fruits". Well known examples are banana, avocado, tomato, apple, pear, kiwi, to name a few.

Pineapple is not a kind of climacteric fruit. However, ethylene exposure will activate chitinase (which is a type of enzyme that breaks down chitin, a structural material inside plants), and cause softening of the pineapple. To achieve this a simple method is to place a ripe banana with the pineapple which release ethylene.

I've been doing it for years. Place in a small container with an inch of water and 2 dollops of honey. Leave it outdoors in Full Sun 3 days. Works like a champ.


How can I achieve an even heat across a large paella pan? I just used a 20" paella pan to make a large paella for 10 people.  The pan covers 4 burners.  The problem that I had was that the center of the pan never reached the temperature of the parts of the pan under the burners. If I raise the gas levels enough for the center to get to a boil, the outside areas get too hot and burn.  Difficult to make an even paella.  Any suggestions?  I have looked for, but not found any heat diffusers that are large enough for this pan.

The oven can work, however, if you have the option, I would suggest outdoors over fire.  Paella is a festive occasion, and this adds to the spectacle.  For your 20 inch pan, you could construct a temporary brick fire pit sort of like the one below, as a friend of mine regularly does.  Alternately, you can place your pan over a charcoal grill, provided it fits. Mine, for example, fits into the opening of my Big Green Egg smoker/grill.  If you don't have those options, using the stove top will mean a constant rotation of the pan.  That gets messy and potentially dangerous once liquid is added. So, I would agree with the oven recommendation...if it fits.

A large paella would generally be cooked in an oven, possibly with some extra cooking on a burner at the end to brown the rice at the bottom.


Is there anything special about "homogenized" shortening? I'm interested in trying to make this "water whip" pie crust. Unlike a typical pie crust where lard/butter/shortening is cut into the flour, the shortening is apparently melted and whipped before the flour is added. I'm curious to try it. But the method will only work with a particular brand of shortening (allegedly):

  It's Spry's easy "Water-Whip" Method.... This time-saving method is
  possible only because Spry is homogenized -- pre-creamed to mix directly
  with liquids.

The recipe is from ~1950 and Spry shortening isn't around anymore. I am wondering whether another shortening (Crisco, etc.) would work in its place, or perhaps even another fat (butter, lard) -- is there really something special about Spry, or was that just a marketing claim?

There is no way to know what they meant when they said "homogenized" - this really sounds like marketing-speak.

But if you are trying to whip shortening with water, you will need emulsifiers. I could imagine that the Spry already had them in. The "With cake improver" sentence in the can also points in this direction, as cake improver often contains lecithine.

You can try normal vegetable shortening. If it does not whip but stays separated from the water (it will probably break up into tiny droplets swimming on the surface under the mixer, but if you let it sit around for a few minutes, they will start coalescing into larger droplets, with the tendency to join into a single oily layer on top of the water), then throw it out and make a second batch, but add an emulsifier to the water first. Lecithine, xanthan, or guar will all work. Then you will get a really whipped shortening, something of a poor man's hollandaise. Work this with your flour.

You must be aware that while the crust made this way will be tender, it won't be flaky. A flaky crust is flaky because it is made from two different textures, the flour-fat mixture and the flour-water mixture, and they separate each other in sheets after kneading. If you mix the water and fat into a whip first, you will not get any flakes. You will get a shortbread crust, which is fine - it tends to be the standard pie crust in continental Europe. But if your goal is flaky, then you should follow the traditional cutting method, Kenji's easy flaky method, or the traditional boiling method.

Homogenized means homogenized. All milk has been homogenized for 50 years. It's so common you don't hear the term anymore. It's a process of breaking down the fat particles so they stay in suspension. In other words you don't want the product to separate. Shortening would separate if not homogenized.  All shortenings, as we know them, are homogenized. I remember shortening that wasn't homogenized and when you opened the can, it had separated into water and oil and solids.

Spring came out 30 years before Crisco.  Crisco is the new comer on the block. Spry in the 20's.  Crisco in the 50's.  Spry is still made and distributed in England, but not in the US anymore.

In the 50's, when Crisco came out, many women tried it just to see. They ALL went back to their Spry. Spry was the superior product.

To answer your question, yes, you can use Crisco for the hot water method.  In fact, the hot water method was preferable up until quite recently.  Somewhere along in the 70's and 80's TV chefs made you feel guilty if you weren't using the cold water method.

Pie crusts for centuries used the hot water method.

Cold water will give you a flakier crust, but that is a train load of more information. The hot water method was preferred because it was less tricky.  It gave more consistent results. My grandmother never attempted cold water until I managed to do it in the 60's, and subsequently showed her. I was not the better cook, I got lucky.


How important is RPM in a blender? I'm looking at getting a new blender, basically the main things I want to be able to do with it are make curry pastes, ultra smooth restaurant quality purees and soups and grind small amounts of spices (I'm talking 1-2 teaspoons). This leaves me with two choices (possibly three of which I'll get too): the Blentec or the Vitamix. The former goes to 27,000rpm and the latter goes to 37,000. I'm wondering is there much of a difference once you get up to crazy speeds like that.

The other option is a Thermomix, which from my reading only hits speeds of 11,000rpm. Unfortunately, given that many Thermomix owners also sell them, it's pretty hard to get unbiased information online so I'm wondering if a speed drop of nearly two thirds will make a difference to the smoothness of my purees. From demos I've seen it think the Thermomix will do a better job with curry pastes and spice grinding as the blades nearly touch the base of the container unlike the other two units: my thinking being that however high the rpm of the Vitamix/Blentec, if the teaspoon of spices can't come into contact with the blades, it's useless.

I read the What to look for when purchasing a blender? question and found no mention of rpm so maybe it's a parameter that isn't very useful, if so then it would be nice to know that at least.

I've used both a Vitamix 500 (not extensively) and a Thermomix TM31. I didn't know there was a difference in RPM, but I didn't notice too much difference in end-effect when both were turned up to full power. So I think it doesn't make much difference at those speeds anymore.

If you're having trouble milling spices though, it helps to heat them a while in the oven, to get rid of humidity and therefore make them more brittle.

Higher RPM is better for smoothies. If you've ever been to Jamba Juice or some other smoothie shop, that great texture mostly comes from the high RPM of the blender


Wooden vs Anti Microbial Cutting Board For Carving Meat Wooden cutting boards look good and are pricier whereas Anti Microbial ones are darn cheap and I am not sure what chemicals/materials they use to make the boards anti microbial. Are these boards safe to use and dependable? Can these boards be used for carving meat?

Lots of hardwoods have antibicrobial properties, so a board that is well-crafted and properly maintained will be safe to use and will last much longer than a synthetic cutting board. Many privately owned butcher shops work over a hardwood table. To clean the surface, you can either scrub with bleach water or you can cover the surface with salt to pull moisture from the board and kill any microorganisms on the surface. Always treat your hardwood cutting surfaces with food safe mineral oil.

I don't know why you think thin would be harder to cut meat.  You can get thicker with a grove for catching liquid.

Yes I have used anti microbial for cutting meat and it worked fine for me.

I like plastic as for me they are quicker to clean than wood. They also store better because they are thinner.  Plastic is dishwasher safe.  I have worked in profession kitchens where all we had is plastic and I suspect the main reason is dishwasher safe and storage.  We did not cut a lot of raw meat but when I did I had no problem.

Kind of related:

The listeria at Blue Bell ice cream was traced to wooden pallets.  The same strain was at more than one facility and pallets was on the few items that traveled from facility to facility. They replace them with plastic pallets.

Not complaining about the down votes. But OP specifically asked in a comment had someone used one for cutting meat.


Flat Yorkshire Pudding Why does my Yorkshire Pudding always flatten within minutes after I remove it from the oven? I always use a very hot oven and make sure the batter is at room temperature befor I put it in the oven. It rises beautifully in the oven but falls as soon as I take it out.

I just realized that you said 'minutes after' before you said 'as soon as I take it out'.

If it's as soon as you take it out, it's a problem with it being undercooked.

If it takes a few minutes to deflate, it can be an issue with cooling them too quickly.  You can get around this problem by taking a sharp knife or skewer and poking a couple of holes in the top of each one.

This will allow any built up steam to escape (which will unfortunately cool it off), but it will prevent the trapped air from creating a vaccuum as it cools, causing it to collapse.

The most important factor to consider is using all-purpose flour, not self-rising.


Never ending soup; is it actually safe? In the poor student or youth worker days it was popular to have never ending soup; a large pot on the stove that was topped up with new and leftover ingredients when available.

Normally the pot was stored in the fridge overnight.

Food items added were sometimes plate leftovers from fellow flat (share house) mates, who would in turn be eating the soup, too.

Most days other ingredients would be fresh(ish) vegetables, beans, grains, and fresh meat products sourced from the local butcher as money allowed.

Brussels sprouts where banned, and so were strong spices (you added those to your bowl before serving).

Also, for irony, a large (cleaned) stone is always left in the pot.

Fresh bread was sometimes baked in the oven while cracked bones were browning, but the oven was often an electrical and environmental death trap.

The pot kept going till the summer holidays, and no one got food poisoning in my time, or from any student stories I have ever heard.

This sort of activity is recorded in history as being a popular resource-saving idea.

Are there any real food safety implications with this method of cooking? And have any actual studies of this technique ever been published?

I still recommend this money-saving idea to current students, not keen on bad practices being continued though.

It takes quite a while for a pot of hot soup to cool down to 40°F in the fridge. Several hours, sometimes, depending on the shape of the pot and the volume of soup. If you're heating and re-chilling the same soup daily, it's going to spend a lot of time in the danger zone. From a safety perspective, you'd be much better off making a pot of soup every few days and then reheating just the portion that you're actually going to eat.

  I still recommend this money saving idea to current students

Soup is a great food for stretching a dollar, but I don't see how it's any more expensive to make a fresh pot twice a week and it shouldn't take much time either. I understand that you were adding scraps each night, but you could as easily save those scraps for a day or two until you make the next pot of soup.

The danger zone is between 40 and 140 F, where bacteria can grow.  While simmering, it's above 140.  After the fridge chills it, it's below 40.  Theoretically, you could perpetually chill it or perpetually simmer it and it would be preserved, but that's not practical (too expensive to keep it simmering all the time, and on the other hand you wouldn't want to eat it cold).  Also, the time any part of it spends between those temps is where bacteria grows, so the shape of the container you're chilling it in is also important. Never put the pot in the fridge, as that will leave the soup in the center of that shape retaining some heat longer -- as the periphery chills, the center will be in the danger zone too long.  So it's best when refrigerating to transfer it to flatter or smaller containers to eliminate this warm center.  This is why restaurants transfer soup from the pot to flatter pans like those in a steam table, not because they need the pot for the next batch, but because a pot of warm soup in the fridge becomes a bacteria incubator.


Is Himalayan pink salt the same as the pink salt used for curing? I'm interested in curing meat, and most recipes require pink salt (which contains nitrites to help cure the meat). Is Himalayan pink salt the same thing?

No, these are completely different products.

As you indicate, so called "pink salt" is a mixture of sodium chloride (regular salt) and sodium nitrate (or sodium nitrite) for curing meats, tinted pink to distinguish it from regular table salt.  it allows relatively accurate small batch curing, as in home sausage making.

Himalayan pink salt is a naturally mined rock salt, whose impurities can tint it a variety of colors, including pinkish, from iron oxide.

Hawaiian pink salt is another naturally harvested salt whose red clay impurities tint it a pink color.

I have been using Himalayan Pink Salt for years...it is the only salt I use.

Curing salt is basically table salt with some added chemicals. It is merely dyed pink to help it blend better with meat.

Himalayan Pink Salt is not processed like table salt. Himalayan contains additional trace minerals.

Salt with trace minerals always has a non-white color. Celtic Sea Salt, for example (which is really good salt) has a brownish sandy color. Pink Himalayan salt is a sort of sandy rose or pink color. All the truly natural full-spectrum salts are sandy, pink, or brownish in color.


Homemade fresh garlic dressing fridge life In my dressing I use fresh pressed garlic cloves, apple cider vinegar,  extra virgin olive oil , salt & pepper in a quart jar. How long can I store this safely in the fridge? There is absolutely no mayonnaise.

Really it is dependent on the acidity of the mixture. For example if you were pickling the garlic you could have a shelf life of several months. However using olive oil changes the acidity lowering the shelf life. If I remember correctly, at the last restaurant I worked at we only kept our house made vinaigrette for 7 days.

On a side note, keeping your mixture in the fridge is extremely important in order to avoid botulism which is found in soil and on the surfaces of certain produce.

I would say a couple of weeks but check to make sure after 8 days because of the garlic. Garlic can go bad real fast sometimes.


Making Fudge - temperature/humidity calculation? About 15 years ago as a student I used to work at a fudge making store.
I remember it was not quite as straight forward as boil, cool, sell.

There was a certain calculation to determine the correct temperature to stop boiling the fudge mixture. I know the general idea is 234°F or 112°C, but I can remember we had a humidity sensor reading, and that had to be used in a calculation to get to the correct or precise temperature to pour out the fudge mixture onto the huge marble table to start cooling and shaping the logs of fudge.

Is there someone out there who knows how this calculation works?

Here is a link with some good advice

I think you have it backwards. They weren't measuring humidity to calculate temperature. Rather, for home cooks, temperature is used to determine humidity.

In fudge making, the goal of cooking is simply to reduce the water in the sugar syrup to a specific concentration. Sugar syrups produce different hardness of candy at different concentrations.

When cooking other things- such as meat- the temperature is important because bad bugs are killed or meat proteins denatured at specific temperatures. Sugar, on the other hand, isn't changed at the temperatures used in candy making. Water is just boiling away. It's usually a bad thing when the temps get hot enough to start changing the sugar, ie caramelization.

Sugar syrups happen to boil at higher temperatures as they become more concentrated. Therefore the temperature can be used to determine the concentration. Temperature is much easier to measure than water concentration. Unfortunately, the boiling temperature of water changes dramatically depending on elevation. I moved from sea level to the mountains and the boiling point of water changed by 9 degrees F. That is a significant difference in candy concentration and I have to reduce the cooking time for my recipes.

In a commercial setting, it is worth the cost and effort to measure the syrup humidity directly. It's more foolproof. However, for home cooks, thermometers are cheap and easy to use. Therefore, most recipes are written in terms of temperature and not sugar concentration.

When making any old fashion candies the humidity controls if the candy sets up. No MATTER how long you cook. Humidity has to be fairly low when making old fashion candy. I just don't know exactly how low. I wait until it's down to 45% . And I have no problem.


What type of whetstones are you using for sharpening stainless steel knives? What type of whetstone should I use for sharpening knives made of VG-10, A2, D2, S30V?

More specific, for each step (grinding/sharpening/honing):

what kind of whetstone: natural or artificial? If artificial, what type of material?
what kind of bonding material? or no bonding material at all for specific grit ranges?

P.S. If you know some other place where specific models of whetstones (and their recommended usage) are discussed, please leave a comment. All I have found so far are some vendor sites, and nothing relevant about practical usage.

For the honing stage, I have found an article regarding belgian natural stones: How does a Belgian Blue Whetstone compare to a Coticule  (without any reference to a specific steel type)

In summary:

the yellow stones (Coticule) are much better than BBW if using slurry
using just water, without slurry, BBW is almost useless and Coticule is very slow

To sharpen a knife I use a wore out flat file.  To sharpen razor sharp. I use a onyx stone with impurities in it. You find these in the river. So a carbon stone very hard. With specks of impurities that add a fine dust as you sharpen a knife. They polish out like glass in use. Volcanic onyx.


What electronic tools are recommended for a cooking journal? I am embarking on a project to cook every recipe in the "The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread" cookbook. I would like to maintain a cooking journal, something similar to a lab book, to document my observations as I attempt each recipe.  The objective is to prefect my bread making method. I prefer electronic methods of maintaining the journal for efficient referencing.

For simply a time investment, you can use one of the free blogging services (blogger is pretty popular).

I recommend iPad and writing notes on it.


Making super-sour sweets -- issues with stickiness I've successfully home-made gummy sweets -- my preferred flavour currently is scotch bonnet chilli. They are made of sugar -- heated until just below hard-ball temperature, gelatin, chillies.

The problem I'm having at the moment is that I want to give them a super sour coating. I've done this by covering them with citric acid, which gives exactly the desired taste effect, however...

Within a few days, they go more and more sticky and gloopy until they congeal to form a gloopy, sticky mass.

This is not desirable. How do I avoid this? And how do things like Tangfastics and other super sour gummmy sweets work?

Like most candy with a coating there is some degree of processing, drying time and technics.  Anhydrous would be more preferable because its moisture free. The less moisture on a coating of any sweet the better.  Citric acid just like sugar attracts moisture.
I've had success with the Sour Patch Kids recipe from Classic Snacks Made from Scratch: 70 Homemade Versions of Your Favorite Brand-Name Treats. The quantities are merely an indication for the coating recipe. Just see how much you used and then subtract or multiply the recipe accordingly.

Coating recipe:
• 2 T powdered sugar for dusting
• 2 T cornstarch
• 2 T granulated sugar
• 1 t citric acid (anhydrous)
Whisk the powdered sugar and cornstarch together in a small bowl, and whisk the granulated sugar and citric acid together in another small bowl. Set aside.
Set a wire cooling rack in a rimmed baking sheet, making sure the rack fits comfortably inside the "walls" of the sheet.
Lightly dust a cutting board with powdered sugar, spreading it with your hand to make an even dusting. The moment your gummies are ready take them out of the pan you had them in. Flip over each gummy once on cutting board so that both sides have a fine coating of sugar.
If the candies are starting to "weep" and get goopy and sticky first dredge them in the cornstarch-powdered sugar mixture, a few at a time, tapping on the side of the bowl to remove excess powder. Then toss them in the sugar-citric acid mixture. If the candies are dry to the touch, simply coat them in the citric acid mixture.
Let the coated candies dry for 8 hours on the cooling rack until the coating is hard and crunchy.
Store the candies at room temperature in an airtight container for up to a week.

Add more of your dry ingredients and try different citric acid. Also consider corn starch or powdered sugar.


Help - Thawed frozen Lasagne issues My wife purchased 2 M&M Family Frozen Meat Lasagnes and left them in a thermal freezer bag in the rear of the Escape. I found them two days later as I was taking her vehicle in for service, and they were thawed. Are these lasagnes still safe to eat if cooked, and if so, can they be refrozen? According to the ingredients the noodles are cooked and I assume the beef has been.

Per Foodsafety.gov, you can refreeze a casserole if it "still contains ice crystals and feels as cold as if refrigerated", but if "thawed and held above 40 °F for over 2 hours", it must be discarded.

Not re freezing food is more of a food safety standard than a rule. There is a type of bacteria called 'Super bacteria' which can be developed by constantly changing the temperature of bacteria. Personally I would fully cook the food and then either eat it or cool it quickly and freeze it. The worse thing to do is to leave it lingering in the hot/cold state.


Is it safe to eat butter that have mold on the surface? I have got a large chunk of butter, with some green molds growing on one surface only, with spots that are 1cm in diameter, and only like 3~4 of them total.

the butter itself tastes and smells fine, once i cut off the mold parts.

it is unsalted butter.

It has been sitting in the fridge for few weaks.

so is it safe to eat butter after completely removing the mold parts ?

You could theoretically salvage the butter, but it really boils down to mold type. Melting and filtrating the butter will get rid of the mold and create ghee. But filtration will not remove aflatoxins that some types of molds produce.

Eating any form of microbiological organism is not safe. There is an extremely high risk of food poisoning if you eat the butter. The safest option would be to throw it out!


How do I make sugar-free ice cream without a machine? I want to make ice cream at home for diabetics without a machine. I'd want it to be sugar-free. What kind of base ingredients should I use? Will the any of the no machine methods here be better or worse, or require modification, since I'm not using sugar?

You could use sugar substitutes but you should take care to use one that is heat stable.

Sugar Substitute with Stevia as main ingredient can be used but you need to inquire to what ratios you would need to use your specific brand with.

Acesulfame Potassium is heat stable but is 200 times sweeter than regular sugar. The general rule of thumb I was taught is 1 gram per quarter cup of sugar.

Sucralose: Granulated sucralose can be used as an equal-volume substitute for sugar. (Raw sucralose is 600 times sweeter than sugar, so you'd use less, but the granulated form contains fillers to bring it up to the normal volume.) There may be some considerations in making ice cream with this as when using this for baking the baking process is accelerated to a certain degree. Be careful with this one.

Saccharin and Aspartame should be avoided because they are heat sensitive.

Other more natural sugar substitutes include honey, fruit juice concentrates and refined fructose.

It's not the same as ice-cream, but plain whipped cream can be frozen, and tastes fine without extra sugar or sweeteners

Freeze it in shallow glass baking dishes for more even freezing, and easier serving

Use a "standard cream" or "whipping cream" depending on where you live (with a 30%+ fat content, preferably above 35% fat)