TASK DEFINITION: Given the background description of some cooking related query, summarize the question into a title
PROBLEM: I recently made custard with a huge amount of milk, custard powder and sugar. After boiling it for few minutes I added vanilla essence to it. After it was settled I added apple and pineapple. Then I placed the whole mixture in the fridge and the custard was tasting fine at that time. But after a half hour of cooling, when I tasted the mixture it was bitter. I googled about the issue and found out that milk and pineapple are not good friends, but I don't want to waste the whole thing now. Is there any way to reduce the bitterness?

SOLUTION: How can I remove bitterness from custard after adding pineapple to it?

PROBLEM: When I read food safety guidelines, I always get the sense that I should run for the decon shower if I even look at a piece of raw meat. I have to fight the urge to sprint home with my groceries lest the eggs become poisonous on the way. If I thaw meat from the freezer, I worry that one misstep will kill me.But rationally, I know none of that is true. Aside from the fact that I've been cooking for myself for decades, and I'm still here, we simply wouldn't be here as a species if it were that hard to cook safely. And then there's this thread from a couple of years ago, which seems to say that there's a fair amount of subjectivity in food safety procedures. (But this thread takes a stricter line.)So: how much difference is there between official food safety doctrine and actual danger? Are there rules that are just oversimplifications in order to minimize human error? UpdateThis is not a duplicate of this question. More specifically, the question is similar, but the accepted answer on the other thread doesn't actually address the question of fault tolerance.

SOLUTION: How much "buffer" or margin of error is in food safety guidelines?

PROBLEM: I made a hot-and-sour soup based on an online recipe, omitting the pork, sugar and dried lilly buds.The major flavoring components were:1tsp White pepper (I used a supermarket-grade pre-ground variety)2tblsp premium brand red wine vinegar1tblsp good soy sauce1tsp Sesame oil1tsp Salt Small package (3oz) assorted dried and reconstituted wild mushrooms4c Chicken stock as the baseI also added a tablespoon of Asian chili-garlic paste for extra heat.The color was pale clear, not the rich brown or reddish-orange I'm used to at Asian restaurants. It smelled terrible - a definite barnyard odor once the white pepper was added. The taste was off as well - instead of a pleasing tangy heat, it was vinegary in an unpleasant way without being tangy, and not particularly hot despite some extra white pepper and chili-garlic paste. While I can fix the heat (more chili paste!), I'm not certain how to fix the sour, the color or the aroma.(Note: I cannot add sugar or solid meat to this dish for medical reasons. Sugar substitute should be OK, if that will really fix it.)

SOLUTION:
How to make a restaurant style meatless Hot and Sour Soup