How are Belgian fries different than the average French fries found in North America? How do Belgian fries differ from the French fries we are accustomed to eat in the US and Canada in such places as McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King and so on? Is it the variety of potato, the preparation involved or something totally different? What oil do they use in Belgium?

I remember having them while I was visiting family in Belgium. The fries were somewhat crispy and thicker than over here.

All of the sources I read say the same thing... what makes them different is that they're fried twice.

From Saveur:

  Frites are the supercharged cousin to paltry American-style fries: made from soft Belgian potatoes called bintjes, they're thick-cut and—this is key—double-fried (in the olden days, in molten horse or ox fat, though modern options range from lard to vegetable oil). Served in a paper cone with mayo and ketchup, properly executed frites—the ones that have been fried, dried, then carefully fried again—are an addictive riot of textures: soft and fluffy on the inside, surrounded by a crunchy, greaseless crust, dipped in luxuriously flavorful sauces.

From Epicurious:

  There is no fancy skill involved in making these crispy fries, but there is a trick. The potatoes are fried twice. The first time cooks them through and makes them tender. The second time, which can be done hours later just before serving, turns them golden brown and deliciously crisp.

From a site dedicated to the Belgian Fry:

  So high time time for a (simple) definition of what makes fries Belgian Fries:

  freshly cut, irregularly shaped
  cooked (fried) twice
  fluffy on the inside, crispy on the outside
  a distinct potato taste
  at least 10 mm thick
  preferably served in a paper cone

Some sites mention the importance of certain fats or types of potato but the one similarity for all sites is the fact that they're double fried.

Most fast food fries ARE cooked twice, they are lightly fried at the factory, drained and flash frozen.  Then cooked agsin at the restaurant.  As far as i can tell, a high percentage, but not all fast food fries are Belgian style.  AND in the factory they may use lard for extra flavor, but in the restaurant they generally use vegetable oil.

Some restaurants cook the fries from fresh potatoes.  So obviously there are exceptions.

As for thickness, I think that here are thick and thin fries everywhere, that depends on who is cooking them.


Method of canning without pressure canner? I'm debating canning but I don't have a pressure canner. I was just wondering what the best method to can would be since I don't want to get botulism and I want the canned food to last for a long time.

Without a canner you are limited to canning high-acid foods.

Botulism spores don't die at 212F, the boiling point of water. A pressure canner boiling water at 15PSI raises the boiling point to 250F or so which will kill the spores.

The bacterium cannot grow in a high acid environment and so high-acid foods such as fruit and pickles do not need to be processed in a pressure canner. Look for recipes for such foods. As use2199 said they will involve boiling the jars for a while to kill things.

An excellent resource is the Ball Blue Book that can often be found near the canning supplies in grocery stores. It always calls for Ball products of course but it has a ton of good canning recipes and instructions.

Don't experiment. Botulism is not a fun thing. Your lips get tingly and then you die shortly aftwards.

I grew when there was NO pressure canners AT ALL. My Mother did EVERYTHING in huge kettle boiling water. Vegies, fruits, berries, compotes, soups,fish, meats, mushrooms. Fish, mushrooms, meats were cooked before to desire recipes, then then placed into jars and boiled inside kettle for amount of time.

We never got sick, and it all can be done.


Can vegetable oil be used in place of butter? I just happen to have one of those Betty Crocker cookie mixes on hand today, and the ingredients list at the back calls for 1/2 a stick of softened butter. I don't have any butter to spare today, but I do have a bit of vegetable oil, and I know that the two can be substituted sometimes without incident.

Can I do so here, or should I do as the package recommends and use butter?

The cooking snobs will say that butter is better, and even my fading taste buds can sometimes detect the difference.  But much of the time you can make the substitute.  BTW the reason for the 7/8 figure is that butter runs about 1/8 water.  So you may have to use 7/8 cup of oil and 1-2 tablespoons of water.

The biggest difference between solid fat and oil will occur when you see lines like, "Blend together with a pastry blender until you have crumbs the size of a pea.  A pie crust made with oil will not be a tender flaky crust.

However for bannock making in the bush, corn oil works fine as a substitute for lard. and it's a heck of a lot easier to keep.

A comment below mentions cookie recipes.  For this to be successful, the flour to fat ratio has to be fairly high.  Bannock is 1 cup of flour to 1-2 tbs of fat.  This is small enough that the flour absorbs all the oil.

Another signal:  If the directions call for chilling the dough then there is enough fat in the mix that using oil would make the recipe way too liquid.  I suspect this is the case with many cookies.

Cake recipes usually don't have as high a fat:flour ratio as many cookies, but cakes are often very fussy about ingredient ratios.

So:  Test before counting on it.  It does work for bannock.

1 cup flour
1 to 3 tbs fat or oil
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
Tiny amount of water.

If you are going to fry the bannock, go light on the oil.

Mix flour and salt and baking powder.
Mix in fat.
Mix in just enough water to make a stiff dough that holds together.  It is very easy to overdo.  Knead only long enough to mix.

Cooking:
1.  Shape into long strips about 3/8" thick, wrap around smooth pole and bake over a 10 second fire for 15 minutes rotating slowly. (A 10 second fire:  YOu can hold your hand where the cooking happens for 10 seconds)

Pat out into 3/8 to half inch slabs.  Cook in a frying pan over a 20 second fire for 5-10 minutes on a side.
Pat out to 1/8" thick.  Drop into a bucket with 2 inches of smoking hot lard in the bottom.  Lift out with tongs after 30 seconds.

Method 1 will keep campers busy for a long time.
Method 2 makes bannock you can use for a meal later.
Method 3 is the fastest method, but it is dangerous.

You absolutely can. maximegir link has some great info and here is another link about common substitutions. Just make sure you don't use a one to one, 7/8 oil to 1 part butter like the link says is about right. Also, in my experience there is subtle difference and the dough wont be as thick. I say run with it!


What are these spaghetti-like strings in the rice I got from a Turkish shop? I bought some rice from Turkish shop and as you can see in the picture it came with this spaghetti like strings with it, I’m not referring to the green stuff.
Do you know what it is and would it have been typically boiled with the rice or added at the end?

It's toasted vermicelli.
This dish is called şehriyeli pilav in Turkey, riz bi sh’arieh in Lebanon and Syria, shehrehi yeghintz in Armenia, and reshteh polo in Iran.
The basic idea is that you brown the noodles in a little bit of oil or butter, then add rice and cook basically as you would cook steamed rice.
Below are four sample recipes.  Note that the Persian version (the last in this list) is more complicated, uses a different noodle (a kind that's more common in Iran) and has a crispy bottom.
şehriyeli pilav
riz bi sh'arieh
shehrehi yeghintz - and if you read that article (it's worth a read), you'll learn that this dish was also the inspiration for Rice-A-Roni.  More like the "Yerevani treat"!
reshteh polo

This is single alfalfa sprout. My research: knowledge of the earth our giver of life.


Does water "go bad" in this sense? I have an electric water boiler in the kitchen. I put fresh tap water into it, boil it up, and use it for my coffee. Then, an hour later, I go back and press the button again and have it re-boil the now room-temperature water, and use it for another cup. Sometimes, several hours pass; sometimes, half a day.
When "too long" has passed, I tend to empty it and put fresh tap water into it, because it feels like it has "gone bad".
Is this silly? Can water really "go bad" like that? Is there any difference whatsoever between freshly poured water and water that has been standing still in the container half a day or even the entire day?
It's still gonna be boiled? Doesn't that "neutralize" basically any kind of water?

It doesn't go bad, but it does change the taste.
When water is just sitting there, water evaporates, but most things dissolved in it don't. Then, each time you boil it, the steam causes additional water to escape leaving the same amount of dissolved stuff in there. So, the concentration of dissolved stuff keeps going up.
Dissolved oxygen also decreases when you heat or boil water, changing the taste.
Finally, even if your kettle is stainless steel, it can eventually rust.

Your water goes bad because of microbiological growth.
Your tap water is not pure water. There is a lot of stuff in it. And your environment is not sterile and simply cooking it to 100°C for a short amount of time does not sterilize it. You have to cook it for 10 minutes and your container needs to be airtight after.


What is coriander root and where can you get it? I mentioned the book Thai Food in an answer to another question. This reminded me of one of my longest running quandaries with it. Many of the recipes mention “coriander root”. I am aware of being able to buy the seeds (whole or ground) or the leaves, but I have never seen for sale anything calling itself coriander root.

Has anyone managed to source this, or am I missing something obvious?

It is just the root of the coriander plant. Certainly at least here (UK) you can buy living coriander plants in the supermarket; you could pull one out of the pot and use the root from that.

Apparently you can also subsitute 2 stems of coriander for every piece of root called for in the recipe, but I've never tried this.

It is the  tap root of the coriander plant.


Is it safe to cook a steak that was left out (raw) for 7 hours? I left a round steak out for 7 hours in a container of cold water.  It was wrapped very well, hadn't been opened yet.

Is it ok to cook this? I planned on cooking it in the crockpot for 8 hours.

It's perfectly safe to cook it, as long as you don't plan to eat it.  The exception is if the water was at or below fridge temperature to begin with.  When food temperature enters the "danger zone" of 40-140F/4-60C, there's a lag time of 2 hours before bacteria go into exponential replication.  Any longer, and the bacteria counts start to increase exponentially, doubling every 30 minutes to an hour.  With the bacteria counts, the risk of food poisoning increases exponentially.  7 hours is just beyond the pale.

Beyond the time/temperature problem, there are 3 things everyone needs to know about food safety:

You cannot smell pathogens, just rancidity/spoilage.  With spoilage, your food is definitely unsafe to eat, but it may be dangerous long before it smells "off."
Cooking to ~165F/74C kills pathogenic bacteria. Different agencies and foods have slightly different temperatures, but most are at or below this temperature.
Cooking will NOT destroy toxins bacteria produce, so heavy cooking is not a solution to meat left out too long.  Staphylococcus aureus ("Staph"), chlostridium botulinum ("botulism"), Escheria coli ("E. coli"), and chlostridium perfringens all produce toxic chemicals, which are not destroyed by cooking.

If it was a very expensive steak, I'd be tempted to cut off the exterior and cook it heavily for myself only (would never dare serve to another).  But, for a simple round steak?  Bin it and buy another, it's not worth the risk.

you people are crazy! Eat the meat!

This is how the internet works, you only end up finding people who are worried about the same things as you, along with people who worry about things to the extreme. Other people wont find this discussion because they dont worry about these things.

7 hours in cold water over night? Where did you get the water? From the amazon?!

Otherwise I think you're pretty safe mate. If, by tiny chance, you get sick, you'll get better, and you're immune system will be stronger. Other people here wont last a second outside of their sterilized bubbles.


How can I melt cheese for dipping? I love dipping things like pretzels in melted cheese.

I've done this lots of times at fairs and other places with 'pretzel carts', but I've never been able to replicate it myself at home.

Whenever I try it, I get really thick, stretchy cheese with a layer of liquid oil sitting on top of it. It's gross, and not good for dipping.

So, how can I melt cheese into a nice, smooth liquid that I can use for dipping in?
I'd love to learn if there's a particular type of cheese that will work best, how to heat the cheese, and any other tips that you can provide.

Normal cheese melts like that. It is made of proteins, fats, and water, and these separate when they are heated.

For dipping, you need processed cheese. It has additives which keep the fat, fluid and solids mixed in a smooth mass. Also, it really helps to use very slow and even heat. This is the easy option.

If you want to do it "for real", without processed cheese, you have to make a cheese fondue. It is traditionally made with Swiss cheese (I am fond of Appenzeller fondue), but you can use most types of semi-hard yellow cheese. It also contains some fluid, traditionaly white wine, and is emulsified with simple starch. It is preferable to have a special pan for this, as you can serve it heated. But if you make a big portion in a pan with a high thermal capacity, and make it immediately before serving, you can do without the special gear.

I can confirm that cornstarch (cornflour if you're in the UK) and evaporated milk works a treat.

By the way, condensed milk and evaporated milk are not the same thing.  Condensed milk is really sweet and used for confectionary.  It would make a very sweet caramelly cheese sauce. Which sounds gross to me.


What kind of chili peppers are these? Having a long weekend, we have some new recipes we want to try. I found this recipe for  Fried Green Chili Stuffed With Pork Stuffing .

Unfortunately, the recipe doesn't say what type of chilies these are. They appear to be longer but more slender than a jalapeño, and just a little lighter in color. Per the recipe, each chili would hold roughly 62g of the stuffing.

I'm sure that I have seen these but can't remember what kind they are. I've been looking online, as well, but haven't found any that really look like they are these chilies.

We're going on the hunt. If anyone can tell me the name of this chili pepper it would be most appreciated.

Those are "standard" green chilies. They might be Anaheim, California, New Mexico or Hatch. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the varieties are interchangeable. Just know that the New Mexico or Hatch varieties are hotter.

It may be a Chinese recipe, but I'm guessing that the chili is New World.


How do you make pork rinds? The little bit I currently know is that they're fried pig skins. However, beyond that it's just a bunch of hand-waving on my part.

Do you buy pig skin from a butcher?
Is there a special type you need?
How do you judge pig skin quality?
I'm assuming they're deep fried, does the oil matter?
Are they a difficult thing to make in your home?

Funnily enough I made some of these just a week ago. They're not at all difficult to make and you can use any rind, which your butcher should be able to supply.

Depending on your health considerations, you can oven cook them or you can part oven cook part fry.

Oven cook method:

Cut the rinds into 4 by 4cm pieces
Place in a pan of boiling water for 10 minutes
allow to cool, then place in the fridge until the skins feel 'dry' approx 2 hours
Preheat the oven to 220c(425f) and place the rinds on a baking sheet. Season and place in the oven
Turn the oven down to 180c(350f) and cook for about an hour. You will need to drain the fat a couple of times.
Let them cool and add more seasoning, if needed.

The Oven/Fry method

Cut the rinds into pieces that will fit on a rack over a baking tray (not small pieces)
Half fill a baking tray with water and place the seasoned rinds on a rack over they tray
Roast these in the oven at 220 to 230c(350 to 450f) for 10 to 15 minutes. When they've changed colour and start to bubble they're done.
Remove form the oven and cut into 4 by 4cm strips
In a pan half filled with very hot veggie oil or a deep fat fryer, cook in batches until they 'puff' up around 2 to 3 minutes.
Remove and let the oil be taken-up by paper towel. Season and you're good to go.

I tried both methods and I preferred the second, something about frying them just 'felt' right :)

boil, scrape the fat..dry it for 0ne week then fry it


Liquid underneath clotted cream TL;DR Why do I find liquid at the bottom of the pan when I make clotted cream?

I've read about clotted cream in books all my life, but it wasn't a thing where I grew up. I recently discovered this recipe online and have tried it out a few times. I follow the directions exactly:

Set convection oven to about 170º or 175º F
Pour cream into clear Pyrex baking dish to about 1" thickness
Put dish in oven and let it remain there for at least 8 hours
Remove dish from oven and let cool for 15 minutes
Refrigerate for 5 or 6 hours.

Each time, I have the same issue. The top layer of the result looks just like in the video, but the buttery portion goes only about three-quarters of the way down the baking dish. The rest is just liquid. In the video, when Steve scoops out the cream at 4:27, it is obvious that there is no liquid at the base.

What accounts for this difference? I have three theories, but don't know whether any of them is correct:

Steve says to use "fresh cream". Does that mean unpasteurized? Raw cream, as it's called here, is super expensive and only semi-legal to buy. So I have to buy pasteurized. I've used both UHT and non-UHT pasteurized cream, and have seen the same results from both. Is it possible that using pasteurized cream causes there to be liquid?
Steve also says to use the "thick cream that we would use for whipping up", which according to Wikipedia means cream that is about 35% milkfat, in UK usage. I used heavy cream, which is 36% milkfat in US usage. So I think I'm using the correct equivalent of what Steve says to use, but perhaps I'm using the wrong kind of cream?
Is my oven temperature wrong somehow? I thought perhaps the milkfat was rising to the top too rapidly and then forming a thick seal that prevented the cream at the bottom from separating. Is this a possibility, and if so, how can I fix it?

I'm attaching two pictures. The first shows the liquid after I've removed a small portion of the clotted cream from the top.

The second shows the liquid by itself, poured out into a jar.

From reading this other question, it seems that whey accumulates at the bottom of clotted cream. But I don't see any liquid at all in the video. And besides, the liquid I have does not correspond to my idea of whey. It's still somewhat viscous and yellow, and lacks the grey, transparent thinness of the whey I get from yogurt.

I thought that it might be buttermilk that remains after the milkfat separates, but it also seems too thick to be buttermilk. I put a dash of it in the scrambled eggs I was making to go with the bread I baked to go with the clotted cream, and the eggs were fine. I've previously used it instead of whey or water to bake bread, but it turned the bread somewhat gummy. So what is this liquid anyway?

Oh by the way, the semisolid stuff above the liquid layer is very tasty, but since I've never had any other clotted cream, I don't know whether it is the taste it's supposed to be.

Every recipe I've ever seen for homemade clotted cream has mentioned that layer under the clotted cream.

Clotted cream is essentially clotted milk solids (similar to butter or cheese, but obviously made quite different, and with a different taste), and the leftover liquid is analogous to the whey left over from cheese making or the liquid that remains after churning cream into butter.

It's likely that using a higher fat content or raw (as in fresh from the cow this morning) cream may result in less leftover liquid, but I've never tried it to be sure-- perhaps someone with more experience can tell us.

You must use batch pasteurized NOT ultra pasteurized.  Ultra does not work. It's hard to find, but it's out there.  Kalona SuperNatural cream is what I use. Horizon and Organic Valley won't work. After 12 hours in the oven at 180 degrees, you let it cool for an hour or two at room temp, then into the fridge for several hours.  When it's very cold, you scoop (GENTLY!) the solid and creamy portion from the top with a slotted spoon and put it into a bowl.  The semi-translucent liquid below is the whey.  The buttery top layer and the creamy layer just below it (that sticks to the buttery crust) is what you put into a bowl.  I stir it together a bit, then put in the fridge over night.  Basically I start on Friday night with putting it on to bake overnight, the pull it out in in the morning, cool it in the 'fridge, and Saturday night I scoop and stir.  On Sunday it will be ready to go!


Why does boiling cream have such a drastic effect on my salted caramel? We have a recipe for a salted caramel spread that is basically a big pan of sugar, glucose, milk and butter, cooked until it becomes a thick paste, then mixed with double cream to achieve a smooth consistency and a glossy finish. Our only problem was that we kept having big variations between batches -- some ended up as thick, sticky spreads (like we intended), others were runny and sauce-like.

After some experiments we discovered that the final stage of the process -- pouring the double cream in -- was responsible. Pour the cream cold and the caramel would come out runny; heat the cream before pouring and the final result would be thick and rich.

Although we feel we're in control of the process now, I was wondering if anyone could explain to us why does heating or not heating the cream have such a big impact on the thickness of our spread.

You don't tell us neither the ratio of double cream to caramel, nor the time you heat the completed mix, so this is just a guess. But it sounds logical that your problem is evaporation.

Double cream consists mainly of fat and water. I don't remember the exact percentages, but more than half of it is water. So, if you heat cream, part of it evaporates during the heating, and it continues evaporating after being added to the pan with bubbling caramel. But if you use cold cream, its water hasn't evaporated during a heating phase, and if you add a large amount of cream to a hot caramel mixture, the whole mixture cools considerably. If you don't heat it and let it simmer for long enough afterwards, the water content of the cream continues thinning the spread. You end up with a runny sauce instead of a sticky spread.

Instead of pre-boiling, you should be able to just simmer for longer time after adding the cream, if you find it more convenient. But you'll have to try it a few times until you have found the cooking time which gives you optimal consistency.

Other than evaporation as in the accepted answer, boiling the cream is also denaturing the proteins in the milk which provides a better, more pleasurable consistency.[0]
Just ask any coffee drink connoisseur or barista, the magic of a Cafe Latte or any other milk and coffee drink is in the milk consistency. These coffee folk have don a lot of work and research into milk and milk temperatures. I'll sum it up here: don't go over 158F but do get up to 140F[1]
you want the fats to melt and the whey to denature but you don't want the denatured whey combining with the lactose. I assume, it's ideal to have the denatured proteins combine with your sugary slurry instead.
All in all, the advice 'boils down' to the same: simmer it. don't boil.
Although i would argue keeping it under 158F(70C) at least until adding to the spread mixture. And even then maybe not.
[0]: I don't care if it's half and half, whipping cream, heavy cream, double cream, or even butter. if it's not Ghee it's got milk protein in it.
[1]: a good rundown of milk temp as it relates to coffee drinks: https://perfectdailygrind.com/2019/02/what-temperature-should-your-cappuccino-milk-be/
ok, i just double checked myself and technically whey doesn't denature until after 70C. so before 158F(70C) what you're really doing is smoothing the fats and condensing the milk. (evaporation). In reality, you don't want to denature the globulin and albumin because you'll break up the lactose/protein bonds which will make for a yucky flavor, I assume because they recombine in weird ways upon cooling. Burnt meat is yummy, Burnt milk is not. Ask Monsieur Maillard.


What is a "Bubble Gum" flavor There is a "flavor of bubble gum", not only for bubble gum, but also for kids toothpaste and milkshakes.

Is it possible to reproduce this taste in the kitchen?
What ingredients are required?
Are they available to consumers or are they 'commercial chemicals'?

Amazon offers several "Bubble Gum Flavoring" or "Bubble Gum Extracts" in both "Natural" and "Artificial" varieties. While the manufactures don't list specific ingredients this is one recipe:

  Here is my basic bubble gum recipe based on "10 parts..." the key is really in the wintergreen, cinnamon and clove.  Fruits can vary a bit-but you will find this to be the "ticket."

  3 parts banana flavor 3 parts pineapple flavor 2 parts wintergreen, 1
  part cinnamon and 1 part clove.

  As I said Bubble Gum flavor is complex and not just one or two notes.
  The oldest formula included a fruit like "king fruit" or "passion
  fruit" but I find most any tropical flavor will pull through.

Whether you (or various manufacturers) choose to use "natural" or "artificial" versions of these flavoring is an individual choice, but it is clearly not limited to "Just artificial chemicals".

Beware that wintergreen oil is quite poisonous: as little as a teaspoon can be fatal. The Drugs.com page on it contains the following: "The highest amount of methyl salicylate typically used in candy flavouring is 0.04%." "Because of this toxicity, official labelling requirements have been changed so that no drug product may contain more than 5% methyl salicylate."

From my perspective, the closest flavor to wintergreen is root beer. I don't think spearmint or peppermint taste anything like wintergreen.

I found this thread because I just ate a candy called "circus peanuts" which I never knew anyone to like them. It tasted like a bad peace of classic bubblegum. I can distinguish the banana flavor mixed with something like wintergreen. At least that's my impression. I will have to try a piece of bubblicious bubble yum some time and see how similar its flavoring profile is. That is the classic bubblegum flavor I grew up with. bazooka Joe was around too when I was too young to chew gum, but bubblicious really was the most popular when I was a kid.


Black spots in the kitchen sink I just moved into a new flat and there seems to be some black spots in the kitchen sink(image attached).Is this black mold?How can I get rid of them safely?

PS: There is some black mold lining on the wall in the outer edge of the sink.And I am allergic to bleach

Update : I tried scrubbing it with dish soap and it washed away very easily. I am now more worried if that could be mold or just dirt/buildup :(

If you zoom in and take a look at some of the striation marks running through the suspect stuff:

... you can see that something was able to scratch through it easily, probably flatware or a knife. I personally use the same chainmail scrubbers that I use on cast iron to clean that sort of stuff off of stainless. It won't leave 'tracks' like steel wool / Brillo might.

Whether or not it's mold would be up to a field test to confirm, but I highly suspect it's just some muck / soot from a pan, you generally don't see mold settle in sinks outside of ring seals around them or the drain.

Some hot water and a good scrubbing should be all you need.

Use a journal to document when and how ofter you have to clean this? Consider: Professional kitchens/hospitals have constant moisture and running water in their stainless steel sinks and DO NOT have black mold build up every three days or so after cleaning with bleach? If you rent your flat why on earth do you have to incur the expense of bleaching every day? the water should be safe. If you "clean" your sink and every couple of days this persists 1. take pictures and share with your landlord in writing a detail of your issue(s). 2. Call a plumber/mold expert share your story. 3. have a professional )not the "maintenance man" come out and take a look. 4. Contact your doctor and ask him/her how mold can affect your health. Remember there are MILLIONS of people who do NOT have any black splotches recurring on their stainless steel sink and whose water does not spew this mold. Take off the aerator ( they are cheap like $2.00) and clean it in fact leave it off for a couple of days and see if the "mold looking stuff" returns. If it does you may have a mold issue in your plumbing and that your landlord must address:). Take care and good luck. Do't believe yourlandlord believe your gut!


Difference between conventional oven with fan assisted and convection with fan assisted? For all my recipes I have been baking using convention plus fan assisted option and my bakes turn out to be good. But now I have moved to new house where there is a convection oven. I tried my cookie recipe with convection plus fan option, my bake turn out over cooked on the outside and undercooked on the inside. What is the difference between convention oven with fan assisted and convection with fan assisted?

After googling for the difference, I am really confused whether convention oven can have fan? But I am sure the SMEG model I used before says "Conventional cooking with fan assisted".

They're the same thing - convection ovens are also known as fan-assist ovens (see for example wikipedia), since they're basically an oven with a fan. Maybe what you had previously was marketed as a fan-assisted oven, and threw out the phrase "conventional cooking" to emphasize that you can still do everything you conventionally could. But it sounds like you're just talking about two different convection ovens here.

More likely, the problems you're having are to do with either the convection being more efficient in your new oven, or the temperature control being off on one of the two. Ovens aren't always perfect, so likely your new oven is hotter when you set it to a given temperature than the old one. It might also have a more efficient fan. You can probably learn to adjust by trial and error - reduce temperatures, and check things frequently until you figure out you've gotten it right. It might also be helpful to grab a thermometer and see if your new oven is lying to you about the temperature.

(If you were previously using non-convection recipes in a convection oven, without adjustment, then your old oven was probably either too cool or its fan wasn't doing much. If you were adjusting recipes for convection previously, then maybe your new oven is hotter than it should be.)

There's a difference between a convection (traditional) oven with fan assist mode and a convector oven. In a convection oven there're heating elements inside the oven's cavity that passively heat the air, relying on natural convection to spread the heat all around. Since most of the heat will rise to the cavity's top and stay there, a fan assist option is offered to uniformely spread this heat around.

In a convector oven the heating elements are hidden and the fan is the principal heat source. You can tell that your oven is a convector because there are no heating elementes inside the cavity. If you turn the convector fan off, the oven cooking action will change from forced convection to natural convection, but it won't be the same because the heating elements are not inside the oven's cavity (negating most of the heating element's IR radiation).


Does baking time increase when making multiple Pumpkin Bread Puddings? The baking instructions for one Pumpkin Bread Pudding is 350° for 30-40 minutes.

Would the time change for baking three at the same time, 1lb 4oz each? Would the baking time remain the same or would the time increase?

It mostly depends on whether you're able to arrange them in the oven with plenty of space. If they all fit on one rack, with a few inches between the pans, it should be basically the same baking time. They're all still in an oven of the same temperature they'd be in if baked alone.

But if things get crowded, especially if you have to put them on the top and bottom rack, with one at least partially over another, then you may need increased baking time. They'll essentially shield each other, i.e. the air will end up a little bit cooler in the area between them. In that case you'd probably also want to rotate and shuffle them around once or twice during baking, to avoid them browning more on the exposed parts and less on the shielded parts.

The oven will also take slightly longer to come back up to temperature with more in it, but likely on the scale of a difference of a minute or two as long as it's a completely preheated full-size oven, so for something that's baked 30-40 minutes you don't really need to worry about. The most direct information I found about this was from BakeWise:

  Even if you have a well-preheated oven, if you open the oven door ... (the time that the oven was open can be over 1 minute) the drop in the oven temperature can be 175F/79C). Recovery time can be several minutes.

So having more bread puddings does extend that recovery time, not just by putting cold mass in the oven, but also by requiring the door to be open longer while you're loading them into the oven. But again in this case that's not the important factor; even if it adds a couple minutes to the baking time, you still need to worry more about the air circulation, and you were already checking in a 10 minute range anyway.

Oven is on temperature control.  Unless the oven is so crowed to limit air circulation the time is the same.

The thermal shock from the pudding is insignificant. The oven can deliver the heat to cook the pudding or not. All the oven has to do is bring the air back up to temp.  At 2' x 2' x 2' and a 2015 watt oven it takes about 20 seconds to bring the air from 70 F to 350 F. After that the oven does not need to deliver 3x the heat as the heat loss to the room is still the same.  It is not like blanching or deep frying where there is rapid heat transfer and the medium started at temperature.  When you open and close the oven the room air is exchanged so with 1 pudding or 3 the air temperature starts at close to room temperature. The oven quickly returns the air to cooking temperature and cooking begins.

two loaves of bread


Keeping homemade soup I occasionally make soup and then freeze it in separate containers to be eaten at a later date. Most of the time I keep one or two servings in the fridge to use in the next few days but I never know how long to actually keep these in the fridge. This time I made this soup http://allrecipes.co.uk/m/recipe/7404/creamy-carrot-and-potato-soup?o_is=LV, It doesn't have any cream in it at the moment so ignore that part. Do people have a particular rule of thumb or does it really depend on to many factors in order to have a specific answer (content,  cooking method etc.)?

Homemade soups should last 3-4 days in the refrigerator, which is a good estimate for almost any cooked food.

If you want longer storage, most soups freeze pretty well, unless they contain pasta, which gets very mushy.  On the other hand, it is easy to leave the pasta out of the main batch, and add it later at the time of service.

See, for example:

StillTasty:  Chicken Soup   Vegetable Soup

I sometimes make a big batch and leave it in the pressure cooker. After each serving, I bring up to pressure and turn off the heat. That's pretty close to keeping it in a can, but I will go though the pot over a week or so.


Mystery kitchen device with three finger loops, one attached to a sliding rod that passes through a ring This is an oddball question but I am hoping someone can help me identify this device, which appears intended for use in a kitchen based on its location in a drawer full of other kitchen tools. As you can see it is about 4 inches long.

This is a cherry pitter. The metal ring holds the cherry while the piston forces the pit out right through the cherry.

Cherry or olive pitter: first two fingers trough the side loops, thumb through the center loop, raise the plunger and insert the fruit pole to pole at the bottom and depress the plunger


How can I store wonton wrappers in the freezer? I have found that authentic frozen egg roll wrappers from an Asian food store work well for canneloni and ravioli. Just thaw, fill, and roll. You can cut them to any desired length. Also, frozen wonton wrappers work exceptionally well for ravioli. While I haven't tried it yet the wonton wrappers should be ideal for tortellini/tortelloni.

But I don't always have these on hand and the nearest place I can get them is about 30 miles away. I have tried buying extra and keeping them frozen but they seem to get freezer burned quickly, with the edges being too dry and brittle to use.

I'm wondering if anyone has any tips on how to keep them better. Or does anyone have any other alternatives that would be as easy to use?

I happen to have watched a TV show the other day about this very problem and they suggested making a big batch of whatever filling or fillings you are thinking of using (presently or in the future) and go ahead and make them all up and freeze them ready to cook.  They were making several kinds of ravioli that day.  They made them all up and placed them on cookie sheets to freeze and then placed them in ZipLock bags and they had a nice supply to pull out of the freezer whenever they were ready to cook them.  They didn't have a problem with brittle wontons once they were filled.  They used beaten egg to seal the edges so the filling wouldn't ooze out.  You can use this same method for any shape or filling....doesn't have to be ravioli, of course.

How about putting them in a freezer bag full of water ,then put them in the freezer.Works well for freezing fish.


Who first put ridges on Ramekins and why? These white things are called Ramekins. Why do they have the ridges around them and who was the first person to make the ridges on them?

Doing a bit of research I've found a few reasons. One having been mentioned above in a comment, that it removes the risk of the dishes sealing themselves together, or at least reduces.

The most logical, however, is that the flutes create more surface area allowing heat to penetrate much faster, for quick and even cooking.

It's possible that the ridges make it easier to hold them using tongs (for handling while hot).


My seitan is horrible I have no trouble preparing the seitan dough, or at least, that is what troubles me the least and can be fixed easily. However, I can't get the texture right. I don't use yeast, just vital wheat gluten and flavor adders.

First I tried with the simmering method. I put a broth to a boil and dropped in small loafs of seitan. As they cooked, they grew bigger and bigger, as they absorbed water. The loafs grew a ridiculous amount, and I was consequently left with loafs made of water and seitan, in that order.

I thought maybe water was the problem, so I tried instead of simmering it, baking it; like some online recipes indicate. I made a seitan tube and wrapped it (rather mediocrely) in aluminium foil and put in the oven. I had preheated the oven to 190 °C. The recipe I used instructed to bake the seitan for 90 minutes, and so I tried. However, about 60 minutes into the cooking, my loaf exploded in the oven (the wrap wasn't strong enough, I recon, although it was a few layers thick). To my surprise, the seitan already had a thick hard crust, and it was quite inedible to my taste.

What recommendations do you have for me? Is there something I have done wrong in each of my attempts? (Is blaming the great growth of my seitan on water wrong, on the first method I tried?) And finally, I am left to wonder: is it really necessary to precook seitan? (Why?)

Thanks a lot chefs! I know practice makes perfect but I'd rather quit wasting ingredients until my ways are right.

Seitan texture troubleshooting

Spongy when simmered

The classic Seitan problem- make a dough and boil it, anyone can do that right? Not with Seitan- either you get it just right or it's inedible. Here's two tricks.

use a container

The surefire way to avoid watery Seitan is to constrain it in some way- commonly used methods are aluminum foil, a freezable/cookable plastic bag, or a cheesecloth.

The cheesecloth is the most wholesome, but is finicky to clean. The foil is cheap and can be tossed, but you're sure to be extracting some aluminum and drawing it into your Seitan, especially if there is lime or vinegar in your broth. The cookable plastic bag is great because you can use a small amount of broth in the sealed baggie, so you won't have any broth waste- but you are also sure to have small amounts of plastic in your Seitan (no worse than store-bought).

I'm currently trying to find a good easy-to-clean cookable sealing reusable container to replace the baggie- stainless steel or tough glass. Maybe a jam jar- or event a small pan.
really, really, really, soft simmer

I was able to improve my Seitan with this, but it didn't get perfect- I'll update if it will. The idea is to boil your water, and then turn the heat down and wait until it just barely simmers. There should be no surface disturbance at all, and just the tiniest of bubbles. The bubbles you see in your water are going to poke holes their own size into your Seitan, so really turn the heat down. You also have to keep it almost at the boiling point though, or your Seitan won't cook properly. I'll see if I can post detailed surefire instructions once I've got the hang of it, these are the best known to me so far. I know others have done it.
Chill before cooking

This is as of yet untested, but I will update once I've tried this. Some recipes call for placing the Seitan in an ice bath for ten minutes before cooking. I have no idea what this does, I would guess something chemical about the gluten "development". The ice bath seemed like a lot of effort, so I just put my dough in the freezer. Results upcoming.
Roll while kneading

Kneading has the most impact on the Seitan texture. One technique to get a more fibry and interesting texture is to stretch out the seitan on one side, and roll it up. After rolling it will easily form right back into a ball, so you can use your kneading time to also texturize your seitan. When you're done, take the little part you didn't knead much and wrap it around your rolled ball. This aligns your gluten fibers in one direction. Will post back with results.
Age it

Seitan is always better the next day- this one is so true, even spongy seitan can become somewhat edible if you press the water out and let it sit there for 24 hours and then fry it. So once you've got some technique that's reliable, make your Seitan weekly and keep it chilled. Then eat cold, stew, or, especially, fry.
Compress before cooking

For unwrapped Seitan, add a step of compressing the dough after needing it- take some time to just press down on it with your hands and massage it into the shape you want, without turning it or changing the shape a lot as you would with kneading.

Dry when baked

Baking Seitan sounds too good to be true, right? No broth, no bubbles. Well, no moistness either- an overcooked Seitan O' Greatness tastes like rubber tires sprinkled with oregano. Yum.

The problem with not boiling boils down to not enough fluids. Kneading the dough needs about 1 cup of water for 2 cups of vital wheat gluten so you can handle it, but after that, the dough gets plenty more moistness from simmering or steaming. When baking, this doesn't happen- so you get a much dryer Seitan.

Soak, then bake

The most straight forward solution is to add an extra step of soaking your finished dough after you've let it sit there- try 10 minutes. This could be combined with the ice bath method above- just add a couple of ice cubes.
Reduce temperature

A lot of recipes call for 60 to 90 minutes at 350°F (180°C), and I never got that to work. 250°F (130°C) is much better. The cooking time of 90 minutes seems to be about right, though.
Water bath

Half-cover your seitan with broth in a baking dish and flip it over after half the baking time. This is just like slow-cooking a meat dish instead of boiling it.
Reduce time

I was only able to get good-ish results with this- okay, but too doughy. Use the 350°F (180°C), but only leave it in for 30 minutes- less if using smaller parts. I still found there was a propensity for this to taste like bread that also tastes like sausage and rubber bands. Some report success.

Bursts when baked

Wrap it loose and thick

As with simmering, wrapping the Seitan is much less tricky. It will expand some, so it needs to be wrapped somewhat loosely. The tighter it is wrapped, the denser it will be- and the thicker and stronger the wrapping needs to be. 2-3 layers of foil worked for me wrapping the Seitan with just a little bit of wiggle room.

Flaky when baked

Age it

Baked seitan is a little bit less finicky but still tests better the next day. Seitan always tastes better the next day. This is proverb-grade wisdom, like "a Lannister always pays his debts".

Lunchmeat Texture

Lunchmeat texture is great if you want lunchmeat or meat loaf, and it doesn't matter if you are just going to grind it down. But if you want to make a version of unprocessed meat, as good as Seitan is, it doesn't make for a very interesting texture.

You can, however, fake the fibery texture by folding the Seitan into layers like puff pastry- but then you turn it and do the same thing. This results in an interesting, semi-meaty texture, and also does a lot of compressing for you, so it gets less spongy as well.

Make a moist dough, a little more than 1 cup water for 2 cups gluten
Mix until all the gluten is moist, but don't knead
squash it flat on the counter, and stretch until it is about a quarter inch (0.5cm) high
sprinkle a tiny layer of gluten to unstick it
fold it, or cut it and stack it
squash-and-stack about 10 times. You will now have about 1000 layers of gluten fiber and it shouldn't take longer than kneading.
gently massage-unsquash it back into a roundish cube, but don't knead
turn it around by a quarter
squash-and-stack about 10 times. You will now have 1000 fibers up and across, because you made layers across the layers
gently massage-unsquash it back into a roundish cube, but don't knead
place the cube into the freezer for 10 minutes

Recommended Procedures

Here are some procedures based on the above troubleshooting to get the results you want.

1. Cold Cuts

To get a good deli style cold cut, do the following:

Make a dryish dough, slightly less than 1 cup of water per 2 cups of gluten
Knead like bread for 3-5 minutes
rest covered for 10 minutes
knead like bread for another minute
form into a log shape and wrap snug in a cheesecloth (don't leave much room, but don't compress it either)
boil for 60-90 minutes
store for a day in its broth

You will know it worked when the outermost layer is softish, and the inside is a little less firm than a rubber eraser.

2. Steak

Make a fold-and-squash cube, as above
cut the cube into 4 pieces. cut so that you are cutting apart the fibers, and each steak has a short part of all the fibers.
flatten each steak to a quarter of an inch (0.5cm). keep pressing and condensing longer than needed to keep it in shape, until it feels like it got distinctly firmer than before
no-bubble-simmer each steak for 90 minutes
store the steaks in their broth for a day
press out the broth and fry

3. Chicken Wings

Do the same thing as with steak, but also cut each steak into 4 as well, somewhat unevenly.

4. Sausage

Do the same as with the cold cuts, but wrap into 5 or 6 small logs using the same cheesecloth.

5. Ground beef

Make a cold cut log as above, and grind it in a food processor in a couple of pulses, until the biggest pieces are about a quarter of an inch (0.5cm)

6. Stew cubes

Make a fibered dough as above, but cook it in a cheesecloth as above to get extra-firm, fibered texture. Then cut, fry, and stew, but much shorter than normal stew, perhaps 45min to 1 hour. Add some xanthan gum to the stew to mimic the gelatin that usually forms when slow-cooking stew meat's connective tissue.

my best results so far were due to adding sparkling water and cooked chickpeas, with this recipe: https://www.elephantasticvegan.com/seitan-made-w-vital-wheat-gluten/


How do you cook a steak like those found in fine steakhouses? I went to a 5* restaurant once, the steak was unbelievable.  You could cut it with a butter knife, it was fat and juicy, pink in the middle, great stuff.

When I cook it at home, I seem to just slice the beef thick, shallow fry it in olive oil with some garlic and  that is all.  It tastes pretty good, but is so far off what I had in that restaurant.

Anyone know how to cook the best steak?  Better cuts of meat?  Fry in butter?

Also any tips in general on how to cook good steak.  All appreciated!

The most important thing you can do is buy quality beef. You can throw a USDA Select steak on a 700 degree charcoal grill, cook it perfectly, and it'll still be tough and not at all what you'd get at a fine steakhouse.

In the USA there are three grades of beef available to a consumer: Select, Choice, and Prime. There are lesser grades but they go to fast food joints, prisons, military personnel, and miscellaneous other weird uses.

In most american supermarkets you will find only select, period. This is an "average" steak. It's typically devoid of marbling, and results in a rather flavorless tough steak.

To find choice steaks you have to go to a higher end supermarket, e.g. Whole Foods You will pay significantly more for a choice steak, but the difference is marked. The marbling will result in a tenderer steak due to the internal fat melting and tenderizing the steak.

Finally, prime cuts. These are very hard to come by in any supermarket unless you live in a bigger city. You typically have to go to a specialty shop or butcher for these. Less than 2% of all beef is classified as prime. On top of this, restaurants get first pick. So even if you do buy a great prime steak, you are likely getting the lower end of the prime spectrum. However, the difference is amazing. The marbling is more intense, more evenly distributed and when cooked properly results in a steak that melts under your knife.

Another one-up a fine steakhouse has on you is they age their beef. Any steak you buy in the grocery store is minimally wet aged. The finest steakhouses dry age their beef. The difference? Wet aging consists of simply vacuum packing the meat (as in a whole side of cow) and refrigerating it for about a week. After that, it's cut smaller and sold to stores. Dry aging is a more complicated and expensive process. Dry aged beef is hung for at least two weeks in a refrigerator. Moisture in the meat is allowed to escape and evaporate, which concentrates the beef flavor of the beef. The beef also grows a moldy rind which is cut off and thrown away. After the aging is complete you're left with 75-80% of the meat you started with. This commands a premium price.

Unfortunately, you can't dry age a steak in your home. There are some refrigerator aging processes that you'll find on this site and others, but they aren't a true comparison.

Another variation that has become more popular is grass-fed beef. This has become a recent fad, at least in the USA. Cattle are traditionally fed corn which makes them fatter and "juicier", but it also leaves the meat tasting very bland. Likely, if you live in the USA, every steak you've ever had was corn-fed. Grass-fed beef on the other hand is fed predominantly grass, they're allowed to graze as cows should. This is good for the cows, because they don't actually eat corn. A cow is made to eat grass. Corn is rather harsh on their digestive system, but they are given no other choice. In the wild a cow would never eat corn. The end result is a very different flavored steak. Grass-fed beef has a much richer, meatier flavor. However, it's also tougher than corn-fed beef. For this reason a steak you will be served in a fine steakhouse is likely not to be grass-fed unless it is specifically designated as such.

With all that out of the way I suggest doing what I do. When I feel like an amazing home cooked steak, I'll splurge on a nice choice ribeye, dip it in a mixture of melted clarified butter and oil, season liberally with salt and pepper, and pan fry it.

AAA ribye
Searing hot grill
Dip in soy sauce
Grill and salt and pepper as you turn


Do people add onions when cooking meat via sous vide I never really see or hear of people adding onion to the bag when they are cooking meat with sous vide. Are there any reasons not to add onion? Would it affect the texture of the meat?

I tried @thrig's idea of making caramelized onions first and adding them to the bag and it worked wonderfully.

I have made beautiful caramelised onions sous vide, but I fried them off in butter first to soften and reduce the gassiness (which apparently can make a vac sealed bag expand and potentially burst).  I added balsamic and honey, then SV'd for 5 hours at 85 degrees C.  They were to die for.


How long should I keep a cut onion? Since I only cook for one or two, I will tend to buy an onion and only use part of it, and then keep the rest in the fridge. Sometimes it will be a while before I use the rest. Is there any guidance on when I should finally just throw it out? What are the signs to look for? What degradations should I expect to trade off against constantly throwing out half an onion (decreased flavor, increased bitterness)?

When I use fresh onions, we store the unused parts for up to a week in our fridge in either a ziploc or a sealable rubbermaid-style container.  For particularly pungent onions they go in the crisper drawer to keep the smell from being too strong in the rest of the fridge, but usually they're just on one of the shelves.  Stilltasty says 2-3 days but my personal experience says otherwise.

Generally in our house, they don't last long enough for the flavor to degrade too much, but they will get a little dried and the smell will get stronger over time.  After a week, they shouldn't be bad in the sense that you'll get sick - but you'll want to use them in a meal where the onion is the star, as the aroma will take over the dish.

Another option that I'm a big fan of is to dice or strip the leftovers (or, a 5 lb bag at once!) and freeze them on a cookie sheet (instead of in a bag, where they'll turn into a giant clump).  Once fully frozen, dump them into a plastic freezer bag, and store in the freezer for easy access to a handful at a time.  For most applications, you can defrost them right in the pan/pot/casserole as you cook, so they're very handy and accessible.  We do the same with peppers in our house for convenience.

I also used to save unused onions for another day, until I read that a cut onion should not be reused in cooking as the peeled surface drinks up all the toxins and bacteria out of the atmosphere and into the onion.

One remedy for flu symptoms is to place a cut onion on the bedside table before sleeping. In the morning the onion will be black in colour having drawn up all the bacteria etc in the room. And the flu symptoms will have disappeared.

I would rather chuck out a half-used onion (after leaving on the kitchen surface overnight) knowing it had worked as a kind of disinfectant.


Avoiding foodborne botulism It's difficult to find information on the internet about botulism prevention that doesn't talk specifically about canning or jarring your own foods or using pressure cookers.

I'm wondering if it's possible to inactivate the botulin toxin itself and possibly kill the botulism spores that may be present in the food using simple methods such as boiling the food in a saucepan with some extra water.

My specific case is as follows: I opened a glass jar of white beans in tomato sauce 5 days ago, and left half of it in the fridge until today. As far as I know this is the sort of environment the botulinum bacteria would thrive in, however I hate wasting food and wanted to avoid doing so on a mere suspicion.

I placed the beans in a saucepan, added some boiling water and let them boil almost continuously for roughly 15 minutes. I placed a lid on the pan during the last 3-4 minutes of boiling, as I realized that might increase the internal temperature.

The only information I could find on the internet on how to avoid foodborne botulism risk involves high-temperature pasteurization processes or pressure cookers, both of which I have no access to.

Here's a snippet that I found:

  Normal thorough cooking (pasteurisation: 70°C 2min or equivalent) will kill Cl.botulinum bacteria but not its spores. To kill the spores of Cl.botulinum a sterilisation process equivalent to 121°C for 3 min is required. The botulinum toxin itself is inactivated (denatured) rapidly at temperatures greater than 80°C .

From https://www.fsai.ie/faq/botulism.html

Did I meet those requirements and inactivate the toxin (and possibly killed the spores, too) by boiling the beans as I did? If not, what should I have done differently?

Answers that don't require the use of advanced equipment or techniques would be very helpful.

Food-borne botulism is a risk mainly in homemade products which were not adequately sterilized before extended storage. The reason is that there must be live botulism spores in the product in the first place, which is not the case with store-bought products as long as these are undamaged and were prepared in accordance with hygiene regulations. For example, garlic oil should only be used in store-bought form, as garlic is a known carrier of botulism which thrives under anaerobic conditions. Of course, with the right procedure, garlic oil can also be made by oneself, but it is imperative to adhere to the right methods such as the pressure canner method described in the Modernist Cuisine Vol. 2.

Temperature of water boiling - 100°C. You boiled it for 15 minutes. So yes, you exceed the time and temperature needed for pasteurisation and denaturation of toxin.

Cindy comment was referring to the fact that botulin need temperature of around 37°C to thrive so a working refrigerator would stop bacteria from producing toxins.

IF and this is very important IF

your white beans in tomato sauce would need to have alive spores. Which, if the beans were store bought is very highly doubtful as typically such food goes through whole time consuming process that kill any type of bacteria in food.


What cheeses work 'best' in melted cheese sandwich applications? I enjoy both toasted and grilled cheese sandwiches, but I generally only alternate between havarti and muenster cheese. I would like to branch out but don't know where to start. These are the factors I think are important in melted cheese sandwiches:

Melt well and fairly quickly
Fairly mild taste and texture
Generally available
Be a natural, dairy cheese (aka not Cheeze Whiz or American cheese)

What cheeses fit these requirements? Are there other components that are vital to the cheese element of melted cheese sandwiches?

Gruyere is DELICIOUS. It melts without getting too gooey or soupy, and it is the traditional cheese component of a Croque Monsieur (if you're into that ham thing...). You could actually probably use any of the cheeses in that "variations" list, but I love Gruyere so that's my recommendation. It's widely available but tends to be kind of pricey here in the US.

Brie is also a good choice; since it is soft to begin with, it melts nicely. (Just make sure to cut off the rind before putting in the sandwich - that would be a weird texture combo.) It's great in grilled or toasted cheese sandwiches because of the richness and slightly buttery flavor.

As a local reference, check out Gorilla Cheese's menu for some tasty ideas; they do classic grilled cheeses with cheddar, American, gruyere or mozzarella, but they make others that have additions of other non-cheese components.

Gruyère/emmenthal (same cheese) is best.  Cheddar is thick, gooey, and more difficult to digest.  Gruyère/emmenthal is much lighter and so much tastier!


How do we decide between gas, induction, and electric (ceramic) stoves? I'm surprised I only found one previous thread on this topic and it was 5 years old, so i think it's worth asking again since I'm sure some things have changed.

We're going to be remodeling our kitchen very soon. I'm not a professional chef, but i do like to cook. This will be the first time I've had the opportunity to actually pick out what stove to use rather than using whatever came with the house or apartment.

I'm trying to decide which type of stove to get. Gas I have the most experience with and seems like the simplest to use. It's also a bit of pain to keep clean.

The induction cook tops seem very cool, certainly seem to be easier to clean. But i'd have to replace a fair bit of cookware. I'm not really concerned about having to do that - buying a new set of pots and pans will be relatively cheap compared to the remodel.

The ceramic ones - the only reason that seems worth considering is it should also be easier to clean than gas. But it also feels like it would be too similar to those cheap stoves that use those coils - and I hate those things.

Can anyone list more pros and cons of each to help me make a more informed decision. E.g., this one will heat faster, etc. No opinions, just comprehensive facts, please.

Induction (I never actually read this, but thought it looked useful; used my own knowledge)

Only work with certain metal pots
Will not burn non-metal items, as long as they haven't had a metal (kid-friendly)
Cost-efficient once installed (if not in CA or other states with expensive electricity)
Easy to clean: water and soap

Gas

Works with all types of pots
Dangerous, may catch items on fire (stay away from curtains, plants, etc)
Generally less cost-efficient than induction stoves (unless in CA or other states with expensive electricity)
Harder to clean: occasional scrubbing is needed

Ceramic

Works with all types of pots
Remains hot and dangerous for a longer time than induction/gas stovetops
Less control over heat, may burn food or reduce quality
Takes a long time to prepare and heat up
Medium cleaning difficulty: no hard scrubbing, but not just a wipe away; may affect performance if not clean

Brands: There are sooo many brands out there. You might want to check out GE, Home Depot, Sears, and IKEA first. But for ceramic cooktops, a deeper search might be in question.

TLDR: Depends on what you're looking for. Induction is the generally best (cost, safety, maintenance, control) but only works with certain pots.

I have used all types. Gas is best. Look into any restaurant or commercial kitchen and you will find nothing else. Response time is tops for both raising temperature and lowering. It is also the most energy efficient and lowest cost of operation.

Worst is glass/ceramic cooktop. Heat control is horrible. The glass surface gets very hot and even after you turn it down it stays hot and continues to over cook your food. The control knob does not directly control heating. The glass top has sensors that measure temperature of the surface, then turn the sub-surface heater coils on or off constantly changing from high to off. Totally inadequate for trying to control your cooking temperature. They are terrible to clean. Any tiny drips or accidental boil-overs (because heat response is so bad) causes whatever you are cooking to burn to the surface of the glass. No liquid cleaners will remove. You must either use an abrasive cleaner and scrub, scrub, scrub, or use a razor blade and then an abrasive cleaner. If you only boil water, or use the microwave you can clean a ceramic once and then not use it and it looks ok. Other than that it is worthless. No one who loves cooking could have designed a glass cooktop stove.

Electric resistance coil is actually second best. Works on any type of cookware and is quite controllable. When you turn the control knob up or down it immediately increases or reduces the power to the coils and changes the temperature. A little more difficult to clean than gas, but far easier than glass top.


What is the secret behind "always soft" ice cream? Since humanity discovered the ice cream in a frozen cave in Antarctica, it was so hard you had to wait 15-20 minutes to be able to use it as food and not as a blunt object for a Hitchcock's plot. Then, suddenly one day all ice cream were soft right out of the refrigerator.

What is the magic component the industry added in order to keep ice cream always soft ?

The softness of ice cream is going to depend on a variety of factors:

Use of gums and other binding agents, amount of sugar, the amount of fat, and especially the amount of "overrun" (air) that is churned into it during the freezing process.  Less expensive ice creams will usually have a softer "chewier" texture than premium ice creams due to more gums and a great amount of air being churned into it to increase volume.

More air = more volume = more yield for the same amount of ingredients used.

There seem to be two approaches:

-Get away with as little water content and as much (emulsified) fat, sugar (bonus for adding some of a non-crystallizing variety like corn or inverted syrup), salt and alcohol as you can- they all lower the effective freezing point of the mixture, though fat in itself can get rather hard if it is the wrong kind. Alcohol in particular is surprisingly effective (once tried using a good amount of 160 proof rum, it really took freezing down to -20°C overnight to not be soft-serve-ish. Tastes great BTW). Works just as well with non-dairy bases!

-Go with "chemistry, and not of the good kind" approaches as described below.


What does gluten "do" in baking? I saw many questions regarding converting baking recipes towards gluten-free, and it seems it's not an easy process. But none of the questions I came across helped me understanding what gluten actually "does" in baking.

The background of this question is that I've got friends visiting in October, one of them is a celiac, and there's a few baking recipes I'd like to try while they're here. Knowing what gluten actually "does" would help me to evaluate if it's even worth trying to convert the recipes ...

I went into some detail with this in my answer to What are the factors that affect the chewiness, softness, moisture of bread based desserts like cinnamon rolls?

To summarize my points there and add some more (simplified) detail on the chemistry:

Gluten is responsible for elasticity of dough, which is perceived as chewiness.  The difference between bread, quickbread (muffins/scones), and cake is largely due to the difference in gluten formation, with cake having the lowest amount and bread having the highest.
It does not directly cause rising - the leavening agent (yeast, baking powder, etc.) is responsible for that. What it does do is form a protein network by cross-linking, which not only results in the elasticity above but also traps gas and prevents it from escaping during the baking process. The "rising" in baked goods is essentially just stretching of the gluten network. This is why hydrocolloids such as xanthan and guar gum can mimic some of the effects in gluten-free recipes; although the mechanism is completely different - in essence, they're creating a very thin gel.
Gluten is also exceptionally good at both absorbing and retaining moisture; it can absorb up to 150% (1.5 times its own weight) in water. One thing you'll notice about typical wheat products vs. their gluten-free equivalents is that latter don't last too long and have to be frozen or consumed quickly. Part of this is due to preservatives in commercial baked goods, but much of it is also simply due to the gluten retarding moisture loss.  You can think of it as a kind of natural preservative.
It's activated by water and heat and is (relatively) slow-acting, which gives it a high tolerance with respect to time and temperature. This is why many people will tell you that bread is "forgiving" while cake and other low-gluten/gluten-free products are not. When baking without gluten, you will have to be very precise about all of your measurements.
Its coagulation action is actually very similar to that of egg whites, and pure gluten (AKA vital wheat gluten) is sometimes actually used as a replacement for egg whites. A meringue is just heavily aerated egg whites and specifically protein; gluten is basically doing the same thing inside of whatever you're baking.
Finally, it provides nutritive protein when eaten. Wheat gluten is about 75% protein and all-purpose flour is about 10% gluten. That means 7.5% of the flour you consume is actually protein. Of course that's nowhere near what you get from meat, but it's still a significant contribution to one's diet.

In short: Gluten does a lot of things. Keep in mind when doing gluten-free baking that a lot of the substitutes only replicate one or two of the effects.

Gluten is a protein and binding agent that can be found in wheat and other grains like barley or rye.  It helps dough to have an elastic type texture, and will help the dough rise and give a chewy texture.  When substituting for gluten when cooking with gluten free flour, you add an ingredient called xanthan gum (there are other stabilizers, but this is my personal favorite as I think it turns out the best results).  The xanthan gum will replace the gluten and does not affect people with celiac disease.  Xanthan gum will add volume to your recipes and make sure that the product doesn't come out crumbly.

People with Celiac disease have a stomach lining that when exposed to the gluten toxin, affects their intestinal villi (villi are fingerlike projections that protrude from the intestinal lining that increase absorption).  When exposed to gluten, the villi will shorten, swell and poorly function thus leading to malabsorption in this population.

I would also ask your friends how sensitive they are.  Some people, even having a little wheat in the house can upset their lining.  If you do decide to try to the new recipes (which I think is a great idea and fun!), make sure that you keep the gluten free flour away from any wheat products.

personal experience that has helped me convert my recipes to gluten free I do not have Celiac, but I have switched over to a gluten free diet, and I will say that it has been great.  I do have more energy, and I just feel better overall.  If you have the right recipe, gluten free meals/snacks/desserts, can be just as tasty if not tastier than gluten products.


What happens to boiled pasta if you use too little water? There are almost always guidelines on pasta packages for the amount of water you should use when boiling.  Sometimes I'd like to use a pot that's on the smaller side, and that got me wondering; what actually happens to pasta if you use too little water (assuming it's at least fully submerged)?

See:

What is the correct water to pasta ratio?
How much water to put in my pasta pot?

Short answer:  if you stir once or twice at the beginning to prevent sticking, and all of the pasta is submerged, you can very successfully make pasta in a reasonably small quantity of water.

Here is a direct link to the Serious Eats article both of the answers above cite.

Anytime you boil a starchy food, like pasta or potatoes (or yuca :), some of the starch ends up in the water (or broth/stock) and thickens it a bit. Now when you're making a stew, you want that thickening to happen, so you use somewhat less liquid to pasta/potatoes. But generally when you're just making pasta alone, you want the pasta noodles to remain separate and you don't want any more thickening than necessary.

Also important is that if you're talking about dried pasta, the pasta needs sufficient water to rehydrate.

At the extreme, if you used just barely more water than pasta, the pasta would heat but never fully rehydrate and/or you'd end up with a sticky, underdone mass.


Reducing fat content in thick chicken stock My chicken stock is very gelatinous (good) but it didn't have a layer of fat to skim off.  How can I reduce the fat content?

Gelatin and fat are different.  Chill your stock.  If a layer of fat solidifies at the surface, remove it.  If you see no layer of solidified fat, you've probably eliminated as much as possible.

To prevent gelatin from freezing, add more water. And excess fat can be removed by cooling the broth and collecting it on the surface.


Why did my hot pepper oil get moldy? While following the advice in this answer I placed two ripe Bhut Jolokia peppers in a fresh bottle of olive oil, and put it on the shelf to sit for a month so the heat from the peppers would infuse the oil.

However, one of the peppers became covered with white mold.

The two peppers were put in at different times, as they ripened, since I only got half a dozen peppers from the plant, and they all ripened at different times.

The first pepper went into what had been an unopened bottle of olive oil, after I cut out a small blemish, and removed the stem and top of the pepper.  It floated at the top of the oil for a few days, perhaps as long as a week, before sinking to the bottom of the bottle.

The second pepper was added about 1.5-2 weeks later, and was more intact (there was no blemish, so I only removed the top to remove the stem and expose the seeds).  That pepper floated on the surface as well, but about 1.5-2 weeks later, I noticed that it was still floating, and was now covered with a patch of fluffy white mold just above the surface.

What did I do wrong here?  How could I prevent this from happening next time?

Unfortunately...I think that other answer gave some dangerous information.

Sticking a raw pepper in oil and letting it sit out is dangerous.  Not only could the moisture cause mold apparently but sticking something like that in oil runs the risk for botulism.

You could reduce the risk of mold by using dried peppers, but botulism is still there.

As one who loves to cook and eat Italian, going as far as to continue the time consuming process of making my own tomato passata and ready made sauce..I have learned that anything you jar, or want to keep in a jar needs to be heated to a boiling point for 30 minutes, ensuring that you have killed all sources of bacteria and other bad stuff. Failure to do so will present you with exploding jars, and a chance to become very ill, and perhaps worse...just read the instructions provided by your mason jar manufacturer, buon appetito


*Cannot* get that "Oven Spring" I cannot, for the life of me (no matter what recipe I try), ever get the bread to rise that last bit in the oven. It always falls a bit instead.

It proofs nicely, but it just won't rise more in the oven. This time, I tried cutting little slits in the top (in case there was some sort of dried crust on top... even though I covered it with a clear shower cap), and I also preheated the oven for 45 minutes with a cast iron pan of water in the bottom of the oven, and a pizza stone. I placed the bread pan directly on the pizza stone.

The theory for oven spring is that the bubbles in the dough heat rapidly and expand. So there needs to be room for expansion (humid oven, no solid "crust" preventing it from expanding), and rapid heat transfer (pre-heated pizza stone).

It. Just. Won't. Work.

Any ideas?

P.S. - This is for gluten-free bread-making, but it should work just the same. All the recipes I try all assume that you'll get that oven spring. But I never do. Ugh. In case anyone is wondering, the latest recipe I have tried is this one: http://www.lynnskitchenadventures.com/2014/04/light-fluffy-gluten-free-bread-recipe.html

I've since figured it out. Gluten free bread is very particular, and the moisture has to be just right. If there's not enough water, the dough is too dense and won't rise. If there's too much water, it will rise, but in the oven, the bubbles bubble through the too, causing the loaf to collapse (I sat and stared and watched it happen). I've since learned what the dough must look like. It looks like thick cake batter. Should be smooth looking, but not soupy.

Any chance there's a lot of noise in your kitchen? Maybe urban legend or not but I know every time my mom's made yorkshire pudding we have to be queit otherwise they won't rise properly.

I also strongly agree with the gluten differential - gluten brownies compared to gluten free brownies have a completely different texture and 'springiness'


How do you source meat that will be minimally cooked? I was recently asked where one could find meat that could be prepared "blue to blue-rare". What kinds of meat (other than fish) can be prepared this way and how would one go about finding a reliable source?

I imagine chicken and pork are out due to salmonella and trichina, but what about (non ground) beef? Are any other land animals typically prepared this way?

The thing to remember, vis a vis bacterial contamination, is that it's almost always the OUTSIDE of the meat that's contaminated, not the inside. With pork and chicken you're worried about an internal parasite/bacteria, which is why they're not cooked rare.

With beef, if it's grade A, it's good to go, and most everything you buy in the grocery store is fine. With tuna (which is another one people like super-rare) the story is mostly the same, though the chance of getting a parasite from fish is higher. In both cases, do a hot sear on the outside, and it'll take care of any bacteria that may be hanging around.

The reason ground beef is considered a higher threat is because the "outside" is pretty much the whole thing after the grinding process.

In Finland I've eaten reindeer rare, even made tartar out of it - totally raw. I didn't even need tenderloin for it, even haunch was tender enough, actually I liked it better then the more expensive tenderloin.


Tips for Removing Fuzz from Peaches? I like to use peaches with the skin on when possible, but I'm not a big fan of all that fuzz.

Does anyone have a fuzz-removal method that works particularly well? Currently, I just rub the peaches with a rough cloth. I didn't know if I was missing out on some other, great method.

I've never heard of anyone trying to de-fuzz a peach, so this isn't a direct answer:

It might be simpler to just use nectarines.

It's a myth that it's a cross between a peach and a plum. They are the exact same species, the nectarine is just a peach with the fuzzless recessive genes.

I don't think fuzz removal is common practice...  so you'll have to innovate or steal from another fuzz conscious industry.  My best guess would be a fine-grain sandpaper, or, if it really bothers you, a beard/side-burn trimmer.  They're small, often battery powered, and trim close enough to get facial fuzz, so they should work on peach fuzz too.


Roasted Pork Leg is Dried Out Every time I try to roast a pork leg a lot of water drains from it and it becomes dry.

Last time I did it this way: 24 hours before, I seasoned a 1.5kg (3 pounds) piece with salt, pepper, garlic, orange juice and lime juice. I put it out of the refrigerator 1 hour before roasting, and roasted it (covered), with  low heat (150° C, about 300° F) for about 2 hours in the seasoned juices. When roasted, I let the meat rest for 1 hour. Still, the leg was kinda dry.

What could be wrong? The oven, the meat? Something in my process?

It is hard to tell just from text descriptions, but I believe your pork leg is under-cooked.

Note that it is likely fully cooked in the sense of safety, but it has not had long enough for the slow process of collagen to gelatin conversion.

Pork legs (or hams, depending on what you have exactly) are well used muscles with a lot of connective tissue, comprised of the protein collagin.  This is tough, even when fully cooked to 165 F / 74 C (which is well done for most meats).

At temperatures above above 180 F / 82 C, in the presence of water (which is in the meat already), the collagen will begin to convert to gelatin, which has a moist, unctuous texture.

This process is both time and temperature dependent.  At lower temperatures, it takes more time; at higher, it is faster.

Continuing to slowly roast your pork leg will allow this slow conversion to happen, making it again become tender and unctuous, because of the lubricating affect of the gelatin.  In fact, it will eventually be pullable just with a couple of forks (although shoulder is even better for this).

You would probably be better served by cooking it at least three hours; four might be even better.

See also:

What makes a moist steak (or roast)? (despite the name, this is about more than steaks)
What factors affect collagen to gelatin conversion?

These guys who have a little experience roasting pork have this to say:

The hams, the large rump muscles on the rear legs are the thickest and most dense muscle group. They are best when smoked to about 175°F.
[...]
Cook low and slow. Normally I tell readers to cook most foods at 225°F and to learn how to peg their cookers at that temp, but if you don't crank the temp up a bit a hog can take forever. So we'll take it up to 250°F or so.

The higher temperature is for a whole hog; a single cut would probably work at the lower temperature.


To what extent is curcumin destroyed by boiling? I came across a "juice shot" / "anti inflammatory drink" recepie the other day which lists the following ingredients :

lemon (in slices)
ginger (in slices)
turmeric (in slices)
sugar
water

The above ingredients should boil for 45 minutes, and then be ready to drink.

One of the advertised health boosters of this drink is curcumin (from the turmeric). However, does it withstand 45 minutes of boiling, or is the amount of curcumin reduced by the boiling?

Googling, I found this report, presenting a chemical and technical analysis of curcumin. Skimming through it, it seems that degradation of the substance should not be a problem due to temperature, although the report doesn't say much about it except that it shouldn't be a problem:

Curcumin is stable in dry food. It is relatively stable to heat so it can be used in thermally treated foods.

However, it warns about using it in solutions of a high pH, without stating which of the degradation products may be unfortunate to ingest. Furthermore curcumin is sensitive to light, so if you want as little as possible of it to degrade it is probably a good idea to keep a lid on the pan while you're heating the solution and consume it fairly quickly afterwards:

In native form curcumin is not suitable as a colouring agent in aqueous solutions of pH > 7
The principal colouring components of curcumin are not particularly stable to light, especially in solutions. After the photo-irradiation of compound 1, a cyclisation product was detected, as well as decomposition products, such as vanillic acid, vanillin, and ferulic acid (Sasaki et al, 1998). Commercial formulations of curcumin are available that are designed to minimize the inherent light instability.

With regards to the pH of your solution I don't think that should be a problem, as it is probably fairly acidic from juices of the lemon.

As far as I know, curcumin is stable, and should be able withstand prolonged heating.


My ginger is blueish... is it safe? I bought ginger at the grocery store last week and kept it, unpeeled, in the fridge. Today I sliced it open and there is a ring of a blueish colour, instead of the yellow I was expecting. The ginger still smells like I'd expect (I haven't tried tasting it).

Would this be safe for use (I was planning on putting some in a salad dressing), or should I toss it?

Having just returned from Hawaii, I actually have a possible answer for you. There is a type of ginger that you can get there (though it's not all that common, far as I could tell) that's called blue ginger. It's just like regular ginger, only it has the blue layer inside as you describe. There was a guy selling it at a roadside fruit stand when we were there.

It should be absolutely safe to use.

edit: I found a link to somebody talking about it. Hawaiian Blue Ginger

hi  we think it does have to do with age and exposure ... have some i just peeled and cut and it has variations of green and blueish purple... have consumed it before with no  ill affect ... it is more fibrous so true :)


What is the history of the white chocolate macadamia nut cookie? By now in 2019, white chocolate macadamia nut seems a very typical cookie flavor (in the United States), available from lots of different shops and in lots of different brands.

I'm pretty sure I never saw them as a kid in the US in the 1980s.  I have a strong memory of macadamia nuts being a rather exotic food at that time, associated with Hawaii.

Who invented the white chocolate macadamia nut cookie?  How did it become popular?

I'm not certain of this answer, but if I had to make a bet, I think the cookie at least was popularized, if not originated completely, with Debbi Fields of Mrs. Fields' Original Cookies.

Macadamia nuts appeared in pairings with (milk or dark) chocolate, usually just in chocolate-covered versions or chunks of nuts in chocolate going back to at least the 1970s.  While I could find sporadic references to macadamia use in baked goods, I couldn't find any references specifically to white chocolate and macadamia in this era.

Macadamia nuts were an unusual ingredient in the 1980s (often associated in the U.S. with Hawaii), but Mrs. Fields' cookies began using them, perhaps due to the connection of the company in one of its earliest store locations in Honolulu during its initial expansion in 1980.  At some point in the 1980s, several macadamia nut flavored cookies were introduced by Mrs. Fields, including pairings with semisweet chocolate, coconut, and white chunk with macadamia nuts.  This page indicates that the white chocolate flavor was available by 1987.

But what evidence is there that Mrs. Fields in particular popularized this flavor?  Well, I could find no references to this pairing before 1987, when we know these cookies were sold by Mrs. Fields.  However, Mrs. Fields didn't just stop with cookies: in 1986-87, in addition to chocolate-dipped macadamia nuts, it tried to introduce ice cream with chocolate and macadamia nuts and even chocolate chip-macadamia soda.  The Mrs. Fields company seemed obsessed with macadamia-chocolate items at this time.  A Hawaiian book in 1988 could immediately make the association from macadamia nuts to Mrs. Fields, stating that:

  Macadamia-nut pie and macadamia-nut ice cream have become Hawaiian
  classics.  Famous Amos' and Mrs. Fields' macadamia chocolate chip
  cookies would not be nearly as good with any other nut.

While both Famous Amos and Mrs. Fields apparently had macadamia cookies by this time, it was the white chocolate chunk version by Mrs. Fields that seems to have brought a new wave with it.

All other references outside Mrs. Fields to specific pairing of white chocolate and macadamia nuts date to the late 1980s or later.  The earliest references I can find in Google appear in ice cream flavors (see this LA Times article from 1988), but there also appears to be a trend in brownies made with white chocolate and macadamia nuts around this time, as in the first mention of the pairing in the NY Times in 1989 as well as this AP reference in 1990 to white chocolate macadamia nut brownies.  One also begins to see references to cheesecake (NY Times, 1990) and tarts (NY Times, 1992) flavored in the same way at upscale restaurants.  One of the earliest references Google seems to find for cookies is in 1993, where the Chicago Tribune covers a designer of high-end gift baskets, several of which seem to include white chocolate macadamia nut cookies.

After an initial period when the flavor pairing was apparently associated with higher-end cuisine and cookies, it began to spread more widely.  By the mid-1990s, the white chocolate macadamia fad was in full swing, as the Washington Post could announce in 1996 that the most recent Joy of Cooking Christmas Cookies book contained recipes for "monster-size cookies in trendy flavors such as mocha walnut and white chocolate macadamia."

In any case, I don't have clear evidence that the cookie flavor pairing originated with Mrs. Fields, but it seems likely to have been popularized by that company in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

EDIT: Further evidence from Google Ngram of the popularity of the phrase "white chocolate macadamia" beginning its rise in 1987 through the mid-1990s, so at least we can narrow down the time period.

Probably a cookie company marketing team asked their R'n'D team to see how they could reproduce a home made cooking one of them saw and ate while on a vacation in Hawaii.

I think it is difficult to find the origin of a recipe (yes, there are exceptions).


Is there a definitive way to know if a tin can is lined with BPA? Many tin cans are lined with BPA which has been connected with various health issues in various studies.

Is there a way to determine whether a can of food contains BPA lining?

Can the place of manufacture/packaging give an indication?
Is there something obvious from the appearance of the inside of the can?

Probably not. Cans are generally marked at point of filling, not at point of manufacturing

The plastic liner looks plastic'y in all cases, it's very hard to tell. Epoxy is harder than other plastics, but there are epoxies that are BPA free anyway

Aluminium cans are more likely have a epoxy liner that will give off a trace of BPA

Many steel cans do not use epoxy or other BPA plastics

Having said that the tested BPA release from a can is 100's of times lower than the recommended maximum daily dose. So in theory there is nothing to really worry about

The common sense answer is, if epoxy dissolved into the cans contents they wouldn't use it would they. The whole reason it's there is to stop the contents 'eating' the can


How to make sure that potatoes are boiled properly? I once boiled some potatoes of average size, by inserting a fork into them I thought they were boiled properly but cutting them in half, I saw the center is still raw with a lighter color. So how should I know it's enough boiling?

You would probably do best to check the internal temperatures of each and every potato. You can do this with a meat thermometer.

  Potatoes are done if tender when pierced with a fork and the internal temperature reaches 210 degrees F. Use a meat thermometer to test for doneness.

[ Source: http://whatscookingamerica.net/Q-A/PotatoBaking.htm ]

(That's 98.8889 degrees Celsius, because I can't read Farenheit.)

Now, baking and boiling are different, and what you are going to end up doing with it or what type of potato you used will have an effect on this. However, you get the general idea. Thermometers will provide the best accuracy for any method of cooking.

If you want to really keep things accurate, you can use the ChefSteps method of selecting potatoes to begin with: http://www.chefsteps.com/activities/finding-perfect-french-fry-potatoes

So all your potatoes have about the same water content.

Then you can cut them all to exactly the same size.

Then you can put them in an immersion circulator/waterbath at 194°F / 90°C, use a special sous-vide bag thermometer to test the internal temperature (it pierces the bag and reseals it on the way out,) and you have the most accurate potatoes ever.

Mmmm, accurate potatoes.

~~

On how long to boil potatoes there probably really isn't any hard and fast, one-size-fits-all rule, (rule of thumb), primarily because the very word potato does not mean one and only one thing. There are many different varieties of potato. But potato density varies by type. So generally does potato size. Both of these factors play a crucial role in how much boiling time is required. (Well, maybe not crucial, but at least unavoidable.)

So very much of success in the kitchen relies on sheer consistency. (That, and actually remembering what does or doesn't work, because without that consistency is impossible.) But with potatoes, since there are really so many kinds, this is inherently challenging. Deliberate effort has to be made to be deliberate. Obviously that's a style to which not everyone is accustomed. I make no apology for that. But if one is willing to catalog one's work, mentally or otherwise, one can guarantee outcomes.

These things said, for any particular variety of potato, (and that's the key), always purchase and prepare potatoes of the same size. Yes, of course, the same size as each other. But that's not all I mean. The same size as the ones you last prepared, and before that, and so on. And equally importantly, the same amount. Use the scales if need be. For example, eight red potatoes the size of a biscuit may fit nicely into a particular pot you own. Or six russets. But if this is what you settle on, never go with russets the size of the reds or reds the size of the russets, and so forth. Yes, at a glance this may seem impractical or unduly laborious, but it's not. For example, to cook for a larger group you simply think in terms of multiples of what you normally do, cooking two or more batches instead of just one.

Add to this methodology. Some people start with cold water, some warm, some even boiling. Some people halve the potatoes, while some quarter them, et cetera. Whatever it is that you do, (for whatever reasons you do it), just make sure you always do just that. But always measure out the same amount of water. To state it in a single phrase: if materials do not vary and methods do not vary, outcomes will not vary.

Only in these ways can you arrive at specific knowledge of how much time it takes and, that is, be able to set a timer to it with absolute confidence. Same variety. Same size. Same amount. Same methodology. And the beauty of it is, you get to pick them all.

~~


Does anybody recognize this Finnish dill sauce? My husband brought back a homemade sour cream dill sauce from Finland. It was thick, perhaps with a puréed vegetable, but I couldn't taste cucumber or the like. There is definitely some texture there. Any suggestions?

A very common fish condiment in Sweden is "dillsås", dill sauce.

10 oz gräddfil. A light sour cream. (yoghurt?)
A few tablespoons of mayo
A generous amount of chopped dill.
Season with salt and white pepper to taste.

You can add some mustard and lemon if the mayo is bland.

The taste is smooth and quite neutral with the dill as the lead actor.

A note on the sour cream. It can't be a thick, heavy consistency. It should be quite light and slightly uneven in texture (whisking makes it smooth). It is almost yoghurt like and contains about 10% fat.  I have seen suggestions that low fat sour cream can be quite similar. I get the impression IKEA stocks it globally.

It should look something like

Image from http://chezsofia.bloggsida.se/2009/08/dillsas-till-saftiga-grillspett/.


What's this "pucker" style hole on my cheese grater for? Ok, this picture has two sort of weird looking holes, but the one I'm asking about is on the left side of the picture - the metal sort-of puckers up, like it's been punched through from the back side.

I've tried this kind of grater to zest things before, with no success, and it clearly mauls cheeses... I can't figure out what it's for!

It is designed for the likes of hard cheeses, nutmeg, or zesting lemon and orange skin. As you mentioned,  a lot of what you want to grate or zest gets stuck between the puckers and it clogs easily.

I would really recommend getting a micro plane as it gives the same fine result without becoming clogged.

Well I don't really know what that thing is called but I'm pretty sure it cuts the cheese way better then the other side


How do you get a nice yellow gravy color when making a chicken pot pie? I'm making a chicken pot pie. Taste is decent, texture is good, however the appearance of the 'chicken gravy' inside is more....dull gray like than a more vibrant yellow. I don't mind it, but most people eat with their eyes first so....

Is the yellow color artificial or natural, and what can be added/removed to create this?

I've only seen that color in canned cream of chicken soup and I'm dubious of its source.
I personally don't feel like it has to be yellow.

If your goal is just color I would use turmeric- it is my yellow-stain of choice.


Why is there a sheet of paper in packages of minced meat? In German supermarkets, minced meat is usually sold in a plastic box under what’s described as a “Schutzatmosphere” (protective atmosphere).
It looks like this:

Not visible in this image, the meat is always placed on a sheet of paper.
Why is that done? I haven’t found the meat to stick to the plastic more than to the paper, and I can’t think of a reason why the meat would go bad faster without the paper.
Also, the plastic boxes usually have a grill-shaped bottom, so the meat would probably not sit in any liquid coming from it.

The paper isn't for you. It's for the robots.
Packaged ground meat like that is ground, portioned, and packaged automatically. The blocks of ground meat are formed by extruding them into an endless strip which is chopped into blocks and moved around on conveyor belts. To prevent the meat from adhering to the belts or falling between them, the strip is formed on a roll of waxed paper, which is sliced with the rest of the meat and remains on the bottom of the blocks through the remainder of the processing. It's not important to remove the paper, so they don't bother.
You can see an example of the technique at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPRea1f8sg4 .

The paper is there to protect the meat from the juices that can accumulate in the bottom.