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I have been taking a cake decorating course that requires me to make this buttercream icing because, being Wilton, they claim that no other icing gets stiff enough to make their decorations, and that other icings won't crust the way this does. Problem is, I think it tastes gross and fake and sorta plastic and commercial, and not at all how I want the icing on my homemade cakes to taste. I tried adding more vanilla and/or more butter flavouring to maybe make it taste better (I suspect the taste is from the shortening?) but it still tastes odd to me. The course instructor said we couldn't replace the shortening with butter because the icing wouldn't get as stiff as I need, and it wouldn't crust. Is there a way to make a stiff consistency icing that doesn't taste so terrible?
The ingredients they post are: 1 cup solid vegetable shortening 1 teaspoon Wilton Flavor (vanilla, almond or butter) 7-8 teaspoons milk or water 1 lb. confectioners' sugar 1 tablespoon Meringue Powder pinch of salt (optional) I would make the following suggestions based on these ingredients: It's not really butter cream icing if you're using vegetable shortening. You'll get far superior flavour by using butter. Pure butter may have trouble holding its shape, but you should have no trouble at all switching to a half-and-half mixture. This ratio won't change the colour much either. I've never personally cared for the Wilton flavourings and suspect that is a major part of the problem here. If you're using the vanilla, it's not real vanilla, it's imitation vanilla extract; pure vanilla extract is dark brown and would colour the icing. Their almond flavour also seems to taste nothing like normal almond extract, and the butter flavour is thoroughly pointless (just use butter!). You can use real vanilla extract, but it will definitely darken the icing. You can try to compensate with an icing whitener, but those things are intended for slightly-off-white icings and probably won't get you all the way to white. Alternatively, you can use pure almond extract instead of the imitation; it is actually clear to begin with. Or, better yet, you can just change your brand. Lorann makes a bunch of concentrated flavouring oils that might taste less fake. If you go to any baking supply store you'll probably see other brands as well. Try a few until you find one that you like. You don't say whether you're using milk or water, but use whole milk or even cream if you can; don't miss an opportunity to lay on the fat (and therefore flavour). Finally, a lot of people (me, for example) find the taste of meringue powder to be disgusting. You don't need it, and the vast majority of buttercream icing recipes don't contain it. If you really want a meringue-based buttercream, as opposed to a simple buttercream without any egg products at all, then just go for broke and make it from an Italian meringue; whip some egg whites to soft peaks, then whip boiling sugar syrup into the eggs until the mixture stiffens, and afterward incorporate the butter and other flavourings. I know, they're going to tell you that it won't be stiff enough. But stabilizing a meringue is dead easy; just bloom some gelatin in the cold liquid (water/milk/cream) before you incorporate it1. The more gelatin, the stiffer it will get. Don't overdo it because if you add too much gelatin, you won't even be able to get it out of the bag (this has happened to me). A 1% ratio should be plenty. Making a great-tasting decorating icing is easy. Stiffness isn't usually the problem, colour is. If you want brilliant white icing then you have to make certain tradeoffs. If you're willing to settle for a cream colour (or slightly whiter, with a whitener) then you've got nothing to worry about. 1. If you're not starting with a hot meringue, then be sure to heat the liquid with bloomed gelatin to dissolve before adding it to the icing!
I'm following this recipe to make cream brulee: http://www.masterchef.com.au/creme-brulee.htm I'm a little confused over the correct type of cream to use. They list "thickened cream" but because this mixure will be heated, should I be using "cooking thickened cream", and is it possible to use a light version of the cream, or will this alter the cooking process?
What you want is cream with 35%-40% milkfat, and no gelatine or other stabilizers for whipping. If you use a lighter cream, then it will not have the rich, creamy texture, and evenly thick consistency you seek. In fact, if you use a light enough cream, it will not thicken properly. Now we enter the murky realm of regional naming differences, trying to find the appropriate kind of cream! In Australia, this would be called pure cream (35-56% milkfat)... which might be the same as "cooking thickened cream." Read the label and make sure it is just cream, not gelatin or foam stabilizers like "thickened cream". It could also be labelled "single cream" too (~35% milkfat). In America, we call it heavy cream, or heavy whipping cream, and it is defined as 35%+ milkfat, and is generally around 38%. In the UK, a recipe I found the uses a mixture of milk and "double cream" (cream with 48%+ milkfat). They mix 100 mL whole fat milk + 426 mL of double cream. The final milkfat content is somewhere around 40%. In the rest of the EU, the same procedure appears to be the best bet, since I can't find clear names for heavier creams besides double cream (which appears to be the same as the UK). Edit: You may also be able to get a good result using straight double cream. I'm looking at a French recipe that uses it. The catch is, of course, that while the minimum fat content is specified, actual fat content in double cream can vary considerably, potentially giving erratic results.
I had these spring rolls at a restraunt, but as you can see the outside was quite different to the 'normal' spring rolls I usually see. The texture is light and crispy and looks 'stringy (but doesn't taste or feel that way). I think it was quite interesting and would like to give them a shot but aren't sure what they're called to search for a recipe.
It's regular roll made with net rice wrapper It's common wrapper in Vietnam. Here's site when you can see the package and rolls made with it bearnakedfood
The back of the oven is raised from the stove top and sits against the wall, forming a small shelf which is a very convenient location to store spices for use when cooking. Sitting there are things such as: garlic powder, paprika, basil, oregano, etc. in various plastic, glass, and metal containers they came in from the grocery store. So, it turns out this area gets quite warm if the oven has been on for a bit, and I'm wondering if that will affect the spices sitting there?
I would keep them away from that area for 2 reasons - one is the heat, and second is that it's a dangerous location for the spices since the edge of most oven panels is generally very thin and not designed flat to be a shelf making it more likely for your spices to accidentally get knocked off than if you put them elsewhere. Here is a link to a similar question answered by an expert: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_should_be_the_storage_temperature_for_spices
I'm making a sour cream pound cake for an event. I would ideally like to make the batter in the morning. I have something else I have to do around 11:30, though, and I won't be home for about an hour. Would it be ok to mix the batter together around 11, cover it, leave and come back? Would my cake be messed up in any way? Should the batter be refrigerated if I let it sit?
Bury it in bread. A meat-substitute burger or kebab meat that has obvious textural or flavor flaws when served bare will often appear near perfect in a pita or bun. Also, you can keep a lot of oil/sauce on it that way, which carries seasonings and juicyness. Start with baked seitan, made from vital wheat gluten (and 10-20% of another protein flour like lentil or chickpea optimally), and season both in the dough and when sauteing the cut up seitan later - experiment with which seasoning is best added at which time. Try strong soy sauces (eg chinese light), cumin, smoked salt and/or smoked paprika, sugar, nutritional yeast/msg, flavorful chile pepper powders (eg turkish chile flakes - not just cayenne pepper powder!), garlic, onion. Also add something acidic, eg sumach or lemon.
There is a sauce that I make that uses browned butter as its base. I love the taste but it just feels incredibly oily. Is there anything I can add that will fix some of the oil feel or is there a different base for the sauce I can use that will taste similar but not be as oily? Edit: Ingredients and approximate amounts - 1/2 c Salted Butter - Browned 1/2 lb Shiitake Mushroom 1/2 Yellow Onion 2-3 Cloves Garlic Pinch Thyme Pinch Oregano Soy Sauce and Lemon Juice to taste (approx. 1-2 tsp each) This is added to ~3/4 lb pasta. I have tried adding more pasta, but that just dilutes the taste. I need some way to keep the same pasta/sauce ratio while reducing the sauce's greasiness.
You want emulsification. Emulsification is the breaking up a fat and dispersing it into a liquid (or vice versa, dispersing a liquid in a fat). A classic example of an emulsification, also known as an emulsion, is mayonnaise. There are at least two good ways you can emulsify your brown butter, soy sauce, and lemon juice. One way is called shearing, which is just what it sounds like. You're basically cutting off slices of droplets, making them smaller and smaller. The smaller the microdroplets, the more stable the emulsion. You can accomplish a short-lived but great textured emulsion with just energetic whisking of your liquid and fat ingredients. You can make the micro-droplets even smaller and your emulsion more stable by using a blender or immersion blender. A second thing you can do to bind your liquid and fat ingredients into a much firmer and more stable emulsion is to add an emulsifier, an egg yolk being a very solid candidate for the job. Energetically whisk in about half of an egg yolk while slowly bringing the cool sauce to just above perfect serving temperature. If you like where the sauce is going, and would like it to be even more like that, temper, then add the other half of the yolk. Mustard is pretty effective too, for a different flavor.
I have noticed that tomato sauce (having started with deep red tomatoes) can turn orange. The colour change isn't from mixing in an ingredient of different colour such as cream. It seems to occur in these observed circumstances: Blended using a blender or an immersion blender (boat motor). The colour change is noticeable quickly (30 seconds or so) Cooked tomato sauce for a long time (hours) The sauce stays nice and red if taken off the heat quickly and not blended. Some of the ideas are: Oxidization: the immersion blender doesn't incorporate much air so this is unlikely. pH change: this usually requires adding of other items such as vinegar. Breakdown of seeds or something else in the tomatoes releasing something that causes the change in colour. Although I think I've seen seedless tomato sauce also go orange. This question also seems to have been asked on the serious eats forum without a substantive answer.
Update: It's been a few years but there now is a definite answer to this question. @PegDat is correct. The Tomatoes Oxidize when they are exposed to air and turn orange. This was proved using an experiment with vacuum blender blending tomatoes with air and with most of the air pumped out. When you reduce the air in the blender chamber, the tomatoes remain bright red.
I have a Char-broil gas cast iron grill. This is one of the style where the flame is under cast iron pans filled with lava rocks rather than cooking the food directly. Works great for when you don't want to bother with charcoal. But I digress. My question is: I think this type of grill would make an excellent smoker, and has anyone tried doing so before? were you able to keep it at the right temperature? How? how much wood chips did you use? Did you soak them? did you try to seal it to keep the smoke in? again, how?
In either case store the cheese in the liquid it came in, transferring it to a clean container and covering well. Feta lasts reasonably well, but mozzarella only keeps well for a couple of days.
From watching videos and going to local Mexican restaurant, it seems the tortillas are much thinner than how I am able to get them when I try to make them at home. Should I be pressing harder all the way down? It feels like there's a limit to how much I can press before it starts sticking to the paper too much, is it possibly a problem with the dough consistency? I use Masa Harina and follow Rick Bayless' video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRwMu9ERCKk
There are a variety of reasons your tortillas might be thicker than you'd like. My first tip to you is to line your tortilla press with a thick plastic sheet on each side instead of paper; I use a circle cut from a freezer bag. This makes it easier to peel thinner tortillas loose. Beyond that, some troubleshooting: Flour consistency: grainier doughs, such as those made from hand-ground hominy, can't be pressed as thin as ones made from very fine ground masa harina. I've made tortillas from our local Oaxacan market's masa para tamales, and those are pretty chubby because of the coarse grain. Dough consistency: if your dough is too sticky you won't be able to press it thin without it sticking hopelessly. If it's too dry it'll be too stiff to press thin, or will crack. It takes some practice to get exactly the right consistency. That aside: enjoy your thick tortillas! Those are actually a legit tortilla style, and they help keep your taco from soaking through and coming apart.
I would quite like to get hold of a large stock pot with a thick base so I can make things like preserves as well, but whenever I look at kitchenware in my local shops (I'm in NZ if that makes a difference) the stock pots I see always have very thin bases, no thicker than the walls. Are the ones with heavier bases called something else, or am I just finding poor quality pots?
Try searching for "laminated base pot", alternatively 'sandwich' or 'encapsulated'. Other terms tend to be more trade markey, multiclad etc. You could always buy a cheap pot & an even cheaper simmer ring instead ;)
And what does he/she principally use it for? I'm thinking of crème brûlée to start with and maybe blackening the skin of a pepper. Apart from that mine sits on the worktop pretty much unused. Oh ... one other use (possibly unwise) .. occasionally using it under supervision does get my very young son more interested in cooking!
I own one, and have tried it for both those uses, but with mediocre results compared to other techniques. For crème brûlée, I get more even caramelization by placing the individual custards under a broiler. The only benefit I could appreciate from using the torch was that it was quicker, and I could monitor the caramelization more easily. (The broiler technique is the one recommended in this book for the perfect crème brûlée.) For peppers, the torch dries out and blackens the skin without really cooking the interior. Again I have had better results in a broiler/hot oven, or on a grill. The torch is most definitely fun, but so far I haven't found it to be necessary; I'll be interested, however, if someone else has found the perfect use(s) for a culinary torch.
I made several loaves of bread 7 days prior to use due to time constraint, so I decided to freeze them after fully cooled, 8 hours after cooked. Normally with frozen bread I would let out at room temperature while sealed for 4 to 5 hours. Will bread be fresh if I assemble sandwiches with frozen bread, wrap air-tight, and wait 6 hours prior to eating? If not, what method would be best to retain freshness of bread, meats, and cheeses assembled in sandwiches?
As a possibility, here's what I do for make-ahead sandwiches with (previously) frozen bread. I'd suggest only a couple things beyond what you are planning. After the bread is out of the oven and fully cooled (8 hours or over-night as you did), I slice before freezing. This allows me to take slices out of the freezer a few at a time. (As an alternative, you could take the bread out several hours ahead of time, then thaw enough to slice; I find this less convenient. Slicing frozen bread is something I try to avoid!) Once out of the freezer, I toast the bread. This both gets the chill off and gives the bread some added freshening and ability to stand up to holding contents for some time (e.g., so the bread doesn't get as soggy). Making sandwiches directly with pre-sliced, frozen bread is possible, but I expect it would exacerbate the sogginess. Assemble the sandwiches and wrap in plastic, foil, or a bag (as you suggest) as tightly as convenient. This procedure, for me, works adequately for several hours of make-ahead.
I'd like to cook something that calls for rice wine, but alcohol is prohibited for me. What can I use as a substitute for it?
I agree with Jefromi that the easiest solution is just to get a cheap oven thermometer that you can put into the oven. I'm not sure where you're from or the availability of them, but they are generally quite cheap. Before such things existed, people had methods for testing oven temperatures for baking. The most common one was to put your hand into the oven and count how long it takes until it's too hot and you need to take it out. Depending on the number of seconds, you could tell the difference between a "hot" or "moderate" or "low" oven or whatever. Such distinctions are sufficient to determine oven temperature to bake a passable cake, but they require experience to achieve even basic precision. If you already knew how to do this, you could estimate the oven settings pretty quickly (though only in a general sense, but good enough for basic baking). But without that sort of previous experience, I'd again just recommend buying an oven thermometer.
Consider the scenario: You cut the bell peppers in 1-2 CM squares, throw them in a pan with some oil and 1/6 teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate. You let it simmer until you get a mush. At this point the bell pepper's peel / skin is tough to chew on. What can you do to get the peel tender soft? Without finding something on the internets, I'm going to boil it together with tomato sauce, diced onion, carrot, celery and minced meat for 2-4 hours and tell you how it went.
You can't. If you want a pepper puree, you have to remove the skins mechanically. Else you get a puree with "scales" of skin inside. You also mention making a stew out of the peppers. The skins are normally not removed for a stew, just eaten along. Many people prefer to not add the pepper at the beginning, but only to throw it in for the last 15 minutes, so it doesn't overcook. This results in pepper pieces which are crisper overall, so it might not be to your taste. If you absolutely need a stew in which the pepper is soft but there are no skins, you can probably char the pepper and peel it first, then cut up the peeled pepper and use it in the stew. But if you put it in as early as the meat, it will probably disintegrate and not be recognizable as pieces any more. If that's your goal, you can save a lot of work by mixing into your liquid ready made ljutenica (which has more vegetables and a more complex flavor profile) or pure bell pepper paste, if you can get it.
Every time I bake lemon bars (regardless of recipe), I seem to end up with a foamy cake-like layer on top of the lemon curd. I'm not really sure where I am going wrong, but it is definitely a technique over recipe thing because regardless of the recipe I have this problem. EDIT: I make my own lemon curd, I don't buy it. Despite me varying recipes, and trying to vary my technique I still end up with a foamy cakey layer on top. The lemon mixture on top of my lemon bars consists of around (depending on recipe): 4 eggs, 300g sugar, juice of 2-3 lemons, zest and 55g flour.
I strongly suspect that your food coloring may have had something to do with it if you were using liquid food coloring as these often have flavors you wouldn't expect. That plus the acidity from the coffee (yes, coffee is acidic) and the cream of tartar (powdered acid) could simulate an orange flavor. Gel colorings are much better as they give much more color without flavors, I'd suggest those in the future, just remember a very little bit goes a long way.
I'm new to the Anova sous vide machine and have successfully cooked tenderloin steaks beautifully with the device. The other day I saw nice thick sirloin steaks in the supermarket which I then cooked at the same temperature as the tenderloins but for 15 minutes more (This was all using the temperature and time guide in the Anova app so from 45 mins for tenderloin to 60 minutes for strip as there are only guides for porterhouse/ribeye/stri/tenderloin) The one thing I did differently is I forgot to season the tenderloins before I sealed the bag. Seasoned before I seared and sat down to enjoy my tender juicy steak and it was like eating a piece of leather. As in it was totally uneatable. The temperature was spot on but the chewiness was horrible. One bag did end up getting pushed around in the pot and was touching the Anova for most of the sous vide time but boh turned out the same. Any helpful advice on why the steaks turned out so tough? Thanks in advance!
If you think of tenderness on a scale, sirloin and tenderloin are nearly on opposite ends of the scale. Sirloin, in general is not a tender cut of meat. Your result has little to do with seasoning or location in the water bath...or even cooking method. Sirloin is a lean and tough cut. Often sous vide can be used to make tough cuts of meat more tender, but sirloin doesn't really have the collagen or connective tissue that will break down like, say, a short rib. If you like the tenderness of a tenderloin, you will never match it with a sirloin. Don't blame your circulator, it is akin to blaming your stove when things don't go well there.
I never get why people add a sweet substance to a savory dish. Especially in something like a a curry or noodles. People say it balances out the flavors. But which flavor is it actually balancing out?
Hot Sour Salty Sweet Sugar balances both salty and sour flavors in dishes. Adding just a little sugar makes salty things taste less salty and sour things taste less sour, without actually reducing the amount of salt or acid in the recipe. For example, the liquid base of the Pad Thai recipe I follow contains chili powder, fish sauce, tamarind, and light palm sugar. The palm sugar balances out the sour from the tamarind and the salt from the fish sauce. Without it, the noodles would come out too sour and too salty. I don't know the physiological reasons for this. Would be interesting to hear them if someone knew ...
Last time I replaced maida with chickpea flour (keeping all other ingredients and their quantities same) in carrot cupcakes. The only difference I noted was in rising. The cupcakes didn't rise much. There was absolutely no difference in texture/softness/taste. In fact these cupcakes tasted a lot better. So, I was wondering if I replace maida/cake flour/all purpose flour with Chickpea flour in all cookie recipes (keeping all other ingredients and their quantities same), what side effects should I expect?
This article, from the Examiner, indicates: Garbanzo bean flour (a.k.a. gram flour, chana flour, besan, chickpea, or cici flour) should be a pantry staple. Unlike other bean flours, garbanzo bean flour does not have to be combined with other flours (although you can do it if you wish). Garbanzo flour is high in protein and gives a slightly “beany” flavor to baked goods. However, they are not focused on food issues, and may not be the most reliable source. According to Living Healthy Mom, you can use chickpea flour as a flour substitute, but they recommend no more than 75% replacement (garbanzo bean is another name for chickpea): Garbanzo bean flour- I know this gluten free flour doesn’t sound appetizing, but it is delicious, healthy and is a wonderful primary gluten free flour that you can use up to 75% in a recipe. And…………..NO, I know what you are thinking……… it doesn’t taste like beans! (I thought the same thing!) Again, not the same as a university extension center, but at least a practicing individual who tries these kinds of things. Given that cookies are made from a structure of starch rather than gluten, the lack of glutens from wheat flour should not be an issue. However, chickpea flour also contains less starch One brand of garbanzo bean flour indicated that it had 18 grams of carbohydrates per 30 grams of product on its nutritional information; that same brand's pastry flour (a wheat flour) had 27 grams of per 34 g of product. As you can see, chickpea flour has significantly less available carbohydrates (mostly starch, some sugars) to form the structure of the baked goods. This will change the texture and structure development. In general, gluten free baking experts recommend using a mix of flours to substitute for wheat flour, depending on how it is being used, in order to get the best possible outcome. If your goal is not to be gluten free, only substituting for 50% of the recipe amount may provide good compromise on the outcome. Bottom line, in a cookie, you would expect when substituting 100% chickpea flour for wheat flour: Different texture, due to less starch and more protein. My best guess is that it will be a little more fragile, due to less starch structure, but I have never tried this. Different flavor, due to the fact that beans taste different than grains Update after the question was edited to talk about the effect of leavening: In a cookie, the structure of the final product is based on gelatinized starches. With the reduced quantity of starch in the chickpea flour compared to wheat flour, there is simply less of a starch network present. This may reduce the capacity of the cookie to retain the gas generated by the baking powder or baking soda, and thus a flatter, less airy product.
A few days ago, I seasoned some pork chops with salt and pepper to cook - but found the pan wasn't quite big enough for all of them, so I froze some instead. Will my pork chops be safe to eat after being seasoned with salt and pepper and then frozen? Will it have an adverse effect on the flavor?
If they weren’t sitting out at room temperature for hours, they should be safe to cook and eat. Salting meat too early can sometimes result in some strange texture problems, but it’s mostly a problem for ground meats, not slabs of meat. If you had put it back into the fridge after salting and let it sit, it would’ve been a ‘dry brine’, which some people prefer. If you want to minimize that effect, I would suggest looking at America’s Test Kitchen’s discussion of cooking steaks starting from frozen, and do something similar with your pork chops rather than thaw them out first.
How do you crack an egg?
Crack sharply on a hard flat surface, and pull the halves apart on the break. Use a flat surface so you don't shove shell bits into the albumen. When you pull, don't shove your fingers into the crack for the same reason. Most of the skill is in knowing how hard to hit the egg to get a crack without shattering the shell. Once you get really good, you can do it one-handed: hold egg in palm, smack on surface, and use your thumb and fingers to push it in half. It takes some practice.
I've been playing with my - very cheap - ice cream maker and want to try sorbets. Already had some success with a strawberry-black pepper one, but I hear some berries and stone fruit are very forgiving because they're pulpy and the fiber acts as a stabilizer helps prevent ice crystal formation. How would I go about improving my chances with lemon or watermelon or other fruit that's mostly juice? I've heard using corn syrup helps, but I'm not sure if the closest product we have here is the right kind - it has about 53% water, which I don't want to add too much, and added honey flavour to serve as a cheaper honey substitute. (While also being overpriced for sugar syrup.) I can however easily get powdered fructose and glucose, which are available for baking for diabetics and such purposes. Would that get the job done if I blend them 1:1? I've also looked into thickeners, but if I'm looking at what's available in grocery stores, it's either gelatin and pectin, and both require cooking to work which affects the flavour of the fruit. Could I mitigate that by only preparing the thickener in say 1/4th of the juice, and then stirring it into the rest?
Serious Eats has covered this : By contrast, watermelon and pomegranate juices are thin with no body, so they need some special handling to make their textures as thick and creamy as berry or stone fruit sorbets. It's even trickier with citrus like lemon, lime, and grapefruit; not only does their juice lack pectin or fiber,** they're so tart they need extra sugar to balance their flavor, and even when you add enough, the resulting sorbet isn't as rich. ** Whole citrus fruit has plenty of pectin but it's all in the rind, not the juice or flesh. ... The master ratio above works great with any fruit purée that has some body and viscosity. But what about thin juices like watermelon, pomegranate, and citrus? Without any fiber or pectin they tend to produce a thin and icy sorbet, even when made with the correct amount of sugar. What's more, they're less forgiving than berry or stone fruit sorbets, because there's nothing in them besides sugar to inhibit the growth of big ice crystals. If you're dealing with citrus juice you have another problem: the juice is so tart it needs to be diluted and sweetened with care. Go ahead: try making lemon sorbet with four cups of lemon juice and one cup of sugar: you'll get something so lip-puckeringly sour you'll barely be able to choke it down. The solution to both of these problems is an alternative kind of sugar, one with different sweetening and freezing properties than sucrose, a.k.a. table sugar. Sucrose is fairly sweet and doesn't add much body to a syrup. That's why pastry chefs look to liquid sugar like invert sugar, glucose, or dextrose, which all make sorbet creamier when used properly. The easiest alternative sugar—the one you can find in any American supermarket—is plain 'ol non-high-fructose corn syrup. Trust me: it's lemon sorbet's best friend. I've written a whole article on the benefits of corn syrup in sorbet, but here are the Cliff's Notes: 1) corn syrup is highly viscous, so it makes for richer, creamier sorbet; and 2) it's only one third as sweet as sugar, so you can use three times as much of it as sucrose—making your sorbet three times as creamy—without over-sweetening the end result. In a blind taste test, tasters almost universally preferred lemon sorbet made with corn syrup compared to sugar. You can see the difference in texture here. Lemon sorbet made with different proportions of corn syrup to table sugar. The more corn syrup you add, the smoother and creamier the sorbet becomes. Even small amounts of corn syrup (or other liquid sugars) can add body and creaminess to a sorbet made with sucrose. How much you use, and in what proportion to sucrose, will vary from fruit to fruit, but this lemon sorbet recipe is a good starting point for super-sour citrus. Oh, and because I know you'll ask: no, honey, agave nectar, and maple syrup aren't good alternatives. For one, they bring strong flavors of their own that may or may not jive with your other ingredients. They're also not very effective; honey has more body than sucrose, but it's so sweet you can't use much of it; maple and agave don't have much body at all. The article also talks about other ways to soften it (e.g., alcohol), but oddly, only links to a lemon recipe, nothing for watermelon.
I really like to cook chicken in my cast iron skillet and I cook it down with butter and Texas Pete Sauce (my mother does the same, but in Teflon). My issue is that it takes about 20 minutes to cook the chicken and after about 8-10 the sauce begins to dry up and I have to pour more sauce in to keep the chicken soaked the way I would like (spicy). By the end my chicken is perfect, but I've used a ton more sauce than I believe I need, the kitchen smells like a cayenne pepper farm, and there's a thick layer of dried sauce on my pan. Any ideas on how to save on sauce or to keep it from drying so quickly? Lower temperature? More butter? Not possible? I would prefer to continue using the cast iron, thank you. Update: Used a smaller skillet (8 in), turned to medium heat, added red wine vinegar for extra liquid.
You could just add water instead of extra sauce. The water will cook off just as much as the sauce would have, leaving you with essentially just sauce by the end. If that's not spicy/saucy enough for you, then it means you did actually need some of that extra sauce you've been adding. Alternatively, you could try lower temperature. If it's all cooking down and drying, you're presumably boiling it, but it only needs to be simmering to cook the chicken. If you're trying to get some browning, you can always increase the temperature at the end. It will probably take a bit longer to cook this way, though. All that said, I know you said you want to use this pan, but it also kind of sounds like the pan might be too big. Extra surface area means liquid boils off faster. If it were crowded with chicken and sauce in the gaps, then it wouldn't boil off as quickly, and there wouldn't be room for sauce to dry onto the pan.
Is cooking twine safe for BBQ? I see twine safely used in the oven, but I need this on a charcoal rotisserie. I'm worried that the twine will burn off. Does anyone know if twine is safe? Or if there is an alternative?
I've used butchers twine on the grill many times with only the cut ends charring a bit. As the meat cooks the twine absorbs some of the fluid that it exudes, which evaporates and cools the twine some. By the time the twine chars the meat has started to shrink and usually the shape has at least started to set. As an alternative you can use wire. Stainless steel wire for this purpose can be purchased online from many grilling and BBQ retailers. For larger projects, like whole hog rotisserie, I've seen people use chicken wire fencing material. Just make sure to thoroughly clean off any oil or coating that may be on the wire before using it on food.
Update: I managed to properly incorporate the gum without any clumping. I used an immersion blendsr (blade attachment) and mixed it with sugar this time, and it helped. To thicken a home made tomato sauce, I tried added xanthan gum. While the sauce did thicken (too much in fact, it was mucus like), it resulted in little white 'seeds' floating in the sauce, which was visually unappealing. First, I placed the sauce in a tall metal cup. I placed my immersion blender (with whisk attachment) inside and turned it on. With the high speed immersion blender whirring inside, I sprinkled xanthan gum inside, bit by bit. The xanthan gum powder did not mix well and white 'seeds' could be seen floating in the sauce. Are the 'seeds' a result of the xanthan gum clumping together? What should I do differently to mix it well to avoid this from happening I should note that the sauce was quite hot (between 160F- 180F) when I added the gum. The sauce also consisted of mainly vinegar, and some sugar.
Kevin's answer is close: a slurry is best, but the mechanism and technique are different than starch based thickeners. With starches, the cells explode when heated, but xanthan gum simply needs to be hydrated, and it can be hydrated at any temperature. Mix a smaller amount of xanthan gum in water in your metal cup, add water, and blend it with your immersion blender. For your slurry, you're looking for a consistency which is much thicker than your sauce, but still thin enough to be able to stir in fairly easily. Like you said, add too much and you'll end up with a pan of tomato snot. A one percent mixture (1 gram of xanthan gum per 100 grams of liquid, by weight) will be pretty thick, even if the starting liquid is water. A little dab will do ya! Good luck!
I use Nestle's Everyday Whitener to make coffee. But with some brands of coffee (eg: Davidoff) the creamer doesn't seem to dissolve. It instead remains suspended as granules in the coffee. But with other Nescafe brands of coffee the dissolution occurs easily. What's the difference and how do I fix it?
I have noticed that my non-dairy creamer dissolves just fine, unless... I dissolve the saccharin-based sweetener first. If I put the saccharin-based sweetener in first, the non-dairy creamer makes lots of clumps and doesn't dissolve properly.
A few recipes I have tried calls for some liquid, typically a ladle of stock or broth, to be added to the baking tray before placing into the oven to finish the cooking process. (To assist in cooking the protein, not crisping the skin) For example, a pan roasted chicken thigh is pan fried quickly to colour the skin before placing into the oven, skin side up (bottom and inside basically raw)with a ladle of stock. 15 minutes later, the chicken is cooked nicely but the skin is not crispy. I have my oven set to 200 degrees celsius fan assisted. I suspect its all the water vapour inside the oven preventing the skin from becoming crispy as when I open the oven door, a large cloud of steam is released. What could I do to fix this? Another example would be when roasting a belly pork with crackling. The belly sits on a rack above a tray of water. When the pork cooks the juices collect into the water below in order to make a gravy afterwards, but the skin isn't always as crisp as I hoped.
I'd agree with the other answers - adding liquid won't really aid crisping of the skin, if you are using the pan fry and then roast/braise technique that you describe (which I do like, and often use) I'd make sure that the skin is really crispy and browned in the initial pan fry (that's basically the point of that first step) - it might take up to ten minutes, but I generally find if the skin is properly cooked then, it doesn't get soggy in the second step. The great thing about the technique is that its easily adjustable to basically any flavour combos, the braise is more for flavour/gravy rather than cooking - as Kenji covers here - note he also mentions early on the importance of thorough cooking of the skin and to keep the liquid level low enough to make sure you avoid this exact issue. If you don't want the sauce/gravy with the chicken then cooking dry in the oven is the way to go. The only possible reason I can think that someone might suggest adding the liquid could aid crisping of the skin is that it essentially means you can roast the skin & top of the thigh, whilst the meat underneath is braised. The braising liquid insulates the flesh and allows that to cook more gently whilst the skin at the top is subjected to the higher, drier (of not fully dry) roasting heat - but even with this guess, I wouldn't recommend it as a technique if the goal is purely crispy skin (if that's your only goal, then dry roasting is better).
I did a fish rub for the first time last night. I mixed the spices and then put the thawed tilapia fillets right into the bowl. I noticed two problems: The spices tended to clump up and became difficult to work with. After cooking I noticed that there were some VERY concentrated pockets of flavor; not at all uniform. Sometimes these were unpleasantly strong. Any advice for next time?
First of all, if you're seasoning tilapia, you'll want to add some oil to it, since tilapia has almost no fat. So, here's the steps: Drizzle oil over the tilapia (both sides). Sprinkle it lightly with the spice mixture, all over Let sit 10-15 minutes. Sprinkle with starch (e.g. flour) at this point if you're frying them. Optionally, you can also add some lemon or lime juice (just a little) in step 1. You also want the tilapia sitting on something flat, with the filets in one layer, like a large plate or baking sheet, not heaped up in a bowl. For spicing small filets, you want a finely ground, moderate-flavor spice mixture. Unlike beef or pork, you're not marinating the fish for a long time, and you're not cooking it for along time. So the spicing on the fish isn't really a "rub"; it's spicing to eat. I recommend against using rubs designed for meat on light fish like tilapia.
I took a salami and removed the outer plastic packaging and hung it in my refrigerator to dry. After about a week it got white mold on it. Is this normal/safe? I know that real/fancy salami has molds rubbed on. This salami does not contain any bacteria or fungus (at least it’s not supposed to) ingredients are beef, water, salt, flavorings, sugar, potato starch, sodium phosphate, ascorbic acid, sodium nitrite
It's one thing to buy salami which comes with its own built-in mold, but to let one develop some possibly different mold spontaneously in the fridge? If nothing else the fridge would not provide the ventilation which I understand is an essential part of the process (that's why you hang them and don't pile them up on a shelf). Worse, I see a seam on the casing, which implies that it's a plastic casing and not a natural one. I would not eat something which grew on plastic..
Yesterday I bought a pack of cherry tomatoes and after arriving home I discovered that one of them had developed some impressive black mold (it was bigger than the tomato itself!). Of course, I tossed the offending tomato and the packaging, washed the remaining tomatoes and put them in a clean box. Now I'm hesitating though; are they safe to eat?
Yes - the mold is an indication that the spores have entered that tomato, but do not indicate any problems with others. Mold usually enters fruits like tomato through the stem site or damage to the skin. The bits you see outside the fruit are actually the fruiting bodies of the fungus (equivalent of the bit you eat on a mushroom - the rest is below the soil). These fruiting bodies produce tons of spores. You should use the others fairly quickly before any released spores have a chance to potentially start growing in them. Edited to add: The general advice would be to discard any fruit that are attached to the main one by the fungal body, wash the others well to remove any potential spores off them, dry well (wetness promotes fungal growth) and use within a short time frame. The USDA has some good advice here - with thanks to SnakeDoc for finding this one.
I've had chicken biryani in restaurants and their biryanis taste extremely different from what we prepare at home. I'm not sure how to describe it except that it's an "onion flavor". We've got loads of biryani recipes and they're all more or less the same. After a lot of pondering over the difference, I've begun to suspect that the restaurants are doing either of these things (or a combination of them): They're somehow adding an onion flavor. Either that or they're adding something else that has a strong pungent, sour flavor. They're adding an ingredient that gives a slight sweet taste. It's not tomato sauce, tomato puree, or sugar. There's something else. I've tried all of these methods. Perhaps it's milk in some way. How can I give a strong "onion flavor" or something similar to it to my biryani? How are the restaurants doing it? Edit: I ordered chicken biryani from the restaurant again and have added some pics. Please take a look at these pics to get an idea about this recipe/onion flavor. So far, no answer talks about creating the lump of onion shown in the pics. Those lumps of onions are the key to creating this flavor: Pic of an "onion glob". This is the strangest thing in the recipe. There are globs of onions between the rice. These are basically lumps of onions that stick together. They resemble a pigeon's egg (size and shape-wise). I've crushed open an onion glob to show what it looks like. Note: There are NO onions in the rice. Only the onion globs + chicken pieces (which contain very small pieces of onions). Inferences: They are clearly not deep frying the onions. I believe deep frying them leads to crispyness. These onions aren't crisp. 2) Pic of the chicken pieces: Another surprising thing about the taste is that the chicken pieces taste almost the same as the onion globs, except they're sweeter. Inferences: I'm guessing that they've mixed tomato sauce with the chicken but can't say for sure. 3) Pic of the rice: The rice seems to have very little oil. It sticks to my fingers. I can see that half of it looks like plain rice. All of it has a very very strong onion-like smell. Inferences: I suspect that the rice was cooked separately entirely. Then it was mixed with the onion globs, and steamed a little bit to catch that aroma.
The restaurants may be adding asafoetida, a ground root product that adds a savory, onion-y flavor to food. It's very concentrated stuff and smells awful, but once you cook it for awhile it's absolute magic.
I've always considered myself a decent baker, but in the last 6 months, I've had trouble with several cookie recipes that I have previously had good luck with. The dough seems to come out very soft and gooey, even after chilling, when it is supposed to be stiff enough to roll - either in balls or cut-outs. I use margarine, but it's never been a problem before. I occasionally substitute some whole wheat flour for some of the white flour. Any clues?
Whole wheat flour isn't going to absorb the same amount of water as white flour, so that's probably the source of the problem. You can either add a bit more flour until you get the right consistency, or reduce the amount of liquid. Margarine counts as liquid as the majority of it is water, so reduce that and maybe add less egg. If it was me, I'd just try adding a couple more tablespoons of flour and see if that fixes it, don't add too much extra right away as you'd be surprised how little flour it takes to change from gooey to firm.
Suppose you have a food that is naturally liquidy, such as curry. You like the flavor but need it less "wet". The problem with drying it is that the aromas also get lost to an extent. However, graphene oxide is selectively permeable to water. Is it practical to dry your fruit, sauce, or other foodstuff in a container covered by a sheet of graphene oxide, letting the water out but keeping the aromas in?
There's a reason it's termed "Fresh Brewed". Tea and coffee only stay fresh for so long. It can be kept hot, not fresh.
Part science, part arithmetic question. For alcohol with proof x what volume constitutes a single drink? Defining a standard drink as 14 grams of alcohol: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_drink although it seems to be the wrong units. I vaguely remember something about moles but wouldn't recall how to apply this here. Actually, not sure where I got the 14 grams from, but a unit of alcohol looks to be perhaps a better measure: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_of_alcohol see also: How to determine the alcohol content of a mixed-drink?
The question provided a link to "How to determine the alcohol content of a mixed-drink?", so I'll assume you want a simpler, easier to understand answer. Consider some common drinks: 12 US fl.oz. (355 mL) bottle of 5% beer = 355×5/100 = 17.75 mL alcohol. 1½ US fl.oz (44.4 mL) shot of 40% bourbon = 44.4×40/100 = 17.76 mL alcohol. 5 US fl.oz (148 mL) glass of 12% wine = 148×12/100 = 17.76 mL alcohol. Your other link defines an American standard drink as 18 mL of pure alcohol, so it's no coincidence that the examples they gave matched so closely. Basically all you need is the volume of the alcoholic product in mL and the strength as a percentage, and simply multiply them and divide by 18 to get the equivalent number of standard drinks.
Based on some research, it seems the leaves contain tannins and so I imagine some number of rounds of boiling are required to extract those/reduce them to an acceptable level. But the texture of oak leaves isn't ideal for eating based on what I remember as a kid. So I'm curious how to deal with that issue. Some type of fermentation seems necessary to break down the leaf compounds into softer/more edible compounds, and maybe even just pickling with vinegar might help? I was curious if anyone has tried this before and had success rendering oak leaves edible.
I cannot find any internet source that recommends eating oak leaves, however treated. The level of tannins in oak leaves isn't just bad-tasting; it's sufficiently strong to cause kidney or liver failure. This is probably why there are extensive records of Native Americans tribes eating acorns but none of them eating oak leaves. It's dubious that any amount of soaking of oak leaves could remove sufficient tannins to render them safe. Some recipes for Oak Leaf Wine involve soaking them for 5 days. If that actually leached the majority of the tannins, the wine would be toxic, and there's no evidence that it is. So my overall answer is: you cannot eat them, use something else instead.
I tried making "Dark and Stormies" out of Greweling's book (Chocolate and Confections). The center is a white chocolate ganache infused with vanilla and ginger and with rum. Both times I tried it, the ganache came out grainy or almost spongy in appearance. I've never had this problem with ganache (although I'm aware that it is very common). I've also never used Greweling's technique for ganache. It has two primary differences: The chocolate has to be tempered prior to using it for the ganache. The chocolate is melted at 86 F (for white chocolate) before the cream is added. Normally, I would use chopped up unmelted chocolate and pour hot cream over it. I wanted to try Geweling's method, though. Attempt 1: I know the chocolate was over heated (probably to around 130-140) during tempering, but the chocolate didn't show any signs of burning. Attempt 2: This time the chocolate was kept at the right temperature. I also stirred the ganache slightly less. The result seems to be better, but still separated. Thanks!
I don't know the details of this particular recipe, so you'll have to excuse me if this comes across as a bit of a shot in the dark, but here are a few things that could have gone wrong: Grainy chocolate is usually a sign of seizing. White chocolate still contains cocoa butter and can still seize. Therefore it's important not to let any liquid touch the melting chocolate and to not let the temperature get too high. 130-140° F is definitely way too high. White chocolate will normally burn or seize at temperatures higher than around 110° F. You mentioned that the second time you used the right temperature, but it's worth pointing out anyway: Be very careful with the temperature, don't use direct heat preferably, use a double boiler or a stainless steel bowl placed over a steaming pot, and stir frequently to keep the temperature even. Don't dump hot cream into the chocolate. It's strange that almost every recipe tells you to do this; water causes melted chocolate to seize, period. The only way to avoid this is to use a very large amount of liquid for a very small amount of chocolate, so what you have to do is go the other way; incorporate the chocolate into the cream, a small amount at a time. This is especially important with tempered chocolate because you've essentially raised the melting point! Also be careful not to let any water get into the chocolate as it's melting; use dry utensils and make sure you don't have any steam condensing over top (use a large bowl over a small pot if you don't have a double boiler). Finally, as Joe commented, make sure you're using the right kind of white chocolate. I've never seen baker's white chocolate, so when I need white chocolate for melting I generally use the white chocolate chips. If yours didn't burn at temperatures as high as 130° F then you might have been using coating chocolate instead. Follow all those precautions and you should end up with a very smooth mixture. I've done this for ganaches and even foams and it's never a problem if you're careful about both the temperature and moisture.
Yesterday, I began using a propane torch (which I won in a raffle; Yay!) for browning the tops of foods. My quandary is: where do I store the torch? The instructions say not to store it in your living space, and not to store it in a place which will get overly hot. That rules out the cabinet under the sink, and the backyard shed. I don't have a garage.
Most recommendations about storing propane tanks outside are assuming you're storing quite a large amount of it (eg, 20lb tanks for a grill). Odds are a hand-torch has a 1-lb tank or smaller, which isn't quite as much of a problem, as be less likely to reach the concentrations to be explosive. (that's not to say it wouldn't be flamible ... just not explosive without the proper fuel-air ratio). I still wouldn't store it inside, as should there be a leak in the tank, many homes have ignition sources such as pilot lights, and LP will travel into basements, being denser than air. If your shed isn't air tight (especially if there's a poor seal well along the bottom of the door), and it doesn't get too hot in the summer time, it should be okay in there. Personally, I keep my propane tanks under a table on my deck, so they've got lots of airflow, but they're out of direct sun and weather. update : another word of caution : always store the canister so the relief valve is up. This typically means don't store it on its side unless you can prevent it from rolling. If you don't, and it gets warm, it will release propane (and then possible sieze up and then burst if it gets hot)
Recently I've been giving more thought to the idea of moving toward a more vegetarian diet. The trouble I've encountered, though, is that it seems hard to find recipes and eating suggestions that are not full-on vegan/vegetarian. For example, I don't enjoy whole wheat bread or other whole wheat things, but those kinds of things are often worked into vegetarian recipes. Regular pizza with white flour is fine by me, at this stage. My theory is that if I try to change too much at once, none of it will stick. I want to eat more veggies, but I don't want the dogma that comes along with vegetarianism. I'm not looking for strict vegetarian or vegan. I'm not planning on giving up steak or chicken at this point in the journey. I do want to eat a few vegetable-based meals per week to get more veggies in my diet. What are some resources (books, blogs, etc.) to get started eating more veggie-based meals? EDIT, in response to comments: In regards to the why behind this question, I'm simply looking to eat healthier. It's not for the sake of the animals (sorry animals, but you taste nice). I'm looking for a few "staple" recipes that I can make on a regular basis that'll be mostly made of veggies. I like (and make) lentil soup, for instance (with chicken broth in it), and I had a curried cauliflower soup recently that was very good. Maybe what I'm looking for is a book of vegetarian-ish recipes that focus on ingredients from the local grocery store rather than specialty items from a health food store.
Further to my comment: If you think of all of your meat-centric meals to be something like 60% meat, 40% (vegetables, carb filler) then just adjust the proportions. If you have 300g steak and 200g vegetables on the side, then start by changing to a 200g steak and 300g vegetables, and keep adjusting as necessary. Pasta with meat and vegetables, just put a bit less meat in and a bit more vegetables in. I used to do 500g dry pasta, 1kg meat, 1kg vegetables, but now I simply do unchanged 500g of pasta, with 600-800g meat, 1.2-1.4kg vegetables. Your recipes don't actually have to change, as long as you don't go completely off the reservation. Once you cut out meat completely, or have very little of it, you may find your food lacking in flavour, and it's then that you will have to do something else to add more flavour back in. As long as you still want to have some meat in your food, you can keep doing what you've been doing, just adjusting the ratio of meat to vegetables. Good luck!
I want to make a pumpkin filled pastry for a potluck thanksgiving. I found a great recipe for pumpkin & feta pastries, but it calls for filo/phyllo dough. Can I use puff pastry dough instead, to make it more 'turnover-like'? If so, how will it alter the preparation?
Looking at this recipe I don't see any reason why you couldn't use puff pastry as the container. The only ways that the preparation would be different is: puff pastry doesn't dry out as fast as filo so you don't have to worry about the wet towel in the instructions. You wouldn't want to do multiple layers of puff pastry as the recipe calls for. You would just form a single pouch to hold your filling and seal it well. Know that the texture will be different of course. The filo will be a bit more crisp and the layers larger and more distinct- filo is also a lot more work. You may find that the baking time needs to be adjusted a little but I don't think it will be very different if at all. Cook them until they're golden using the recipe's time as a starting point. This recipe is in a Mediterranean style and filo would be more traditional but puff pastry would produce something tasty.
I want to obtain a taste very similar to wasabi, but without wasabi ingredients. How do I do it?
Yes, it depends on brand, humidity, etc. My local variety is 1:4 to 1:4.5 (polenta:water) to get to that softness level Add nothing else until you have the polenta at the desired consistency and softness
The cooking pot just keeps smoking when I put it on the element and I don't understand why because I used it on my moms stove before without any trouble. But when I put the temperature to MAX it starts smoking and setting off the smoke alarm. When I take the pot off and look at the bottom it's white but it goes away when I wipe it off. I THINK it's a cast iron pot, so is this normal to be smoking? Because when I put the temperature to 7 it cooks fine with no problem.
There are a lot of variables here that can cause smoke. Are you oiling the pan before use? Direct contact electric stoves set to high or max typically cause light oils (olive oil) or other oils with low-ish smoke points (coconut oil) to smoke pretty quickly. There could be crud on the bottom of the pan as noted by a previous ans. There could be crud on the heating element itself. Cast Iron will smoke if it's seasoned well and placed on a direct heat source. The fats in the pan and oils that keep the cast iron from rusting (and also give it the smooth, stick-free surface, and excellent flavor profile) will cook off under high direct heat, causing smoke. To tell if it's a cast iron pot, look for raw, exposed iron. If not, it could be enamled cast iron, which would not smoke like a seasoned cast iron pot or pan. note: cast iron should not be heated rapidly under direct heat, you can crack the pot... heat cast iron gradually
I have an old recipe of my grandmother's for sugar cookies and I'd love for them to turn out just like hers. However, whenever I try to roll out the dough, I find I either can't get it thin enough, it is too sticky or it ends up tearing. What are the proper tools and techniques I need to roll out sugar cookie dough?
There's a lot of things that can throw off baking recipes -- Regional variations in flour hardness. 'All purpose' flour from the US South tends to be softer than brands from other areas. The humidity and temperature. Altitude (affects the boiling point of water, which will require adjusting baking times and possibly leavening agents) How you measure your flour -- I'm lazy and use scoop & sweep -- my mom, however, would use spoon and sweep. Size of your eggs. Most recipes in the US assume 'Large' eggs unless otherwise specified. Type of salt used. Most recipes in the US assume table salt unless otherwise specified. How you mix the dough, and how long you mix it. How long you rest the dough before rolling out. In your case, for rolled doughs: temperature of the dough. (you want it chilled, but not so cold that it crumbles) work surface / rolling pin material (specific to your problem, will affect how much things stick, and how they retain/transfer heat) You might also want to see Baking 911 : Cookies Problems and Baking 911 : Rolled Cookies
I would like to be able to make sorbet with whatever ingredients I have on hand without always looking up a recipe. I understand that it's important to get the correct balance of sugar, liquid, and other ingredients for the end product to have the right texture. There seem to be a couple options for testing your sorbet mixture: syrup density meters and refractometers. Before I spend money on one of these tools, I'm wondering: Can I reliably make sorbet without one of these tools? What techniques do you use to make sorbet with each of these tools? Are there advantages/disadvantages to one way or another? What do I need to know about the different scales (Brix, Baumé, specific gravity, other) and what readings should I target? Are there other things to consider regarding ingredients (purée v. juice, effect of additives such as alcohol, etc.)?
Your question asks about a lot of very specific scientific detail, but really, with a bit of experience, you can make sorbet without any of that. For most fruits, you need about 1/3 as much sugar as fruit by volume - two cups of fruit and 2/3 cup sugar is pretty common in recipes. This works with a good variety of fruits - for example, mangoes, strawberries, and kiwis should do well. If it's too thick, you may also want to add a bit of water, perhaps even up to the amount of sugar you used. With less water, you'll get a richer, more velvety, perhaps almost creamy sorbet, depending on the fruit; with more water it will of course be icier. Of course, you'll end up adjusting the sugar sometimes - a bit less for very sweet ripe fruits, and a bit more for less sweet ones. But so much of the sugar is coming from what you add that you don't usually need huge adjustments; it should generally be somewhere in the 1:4 to 1:2 range. And there's enough variety just in the sweetness of the same fruit that predetermined ratios aren't always exactly right anyway. If you make a few sorbets from recipes, you should be able to judge well by taste: before freezing, it will be quite sweet, a bit more than you'd want to eat. Unsurprisingly, it should be similar to the sweetness of melted sorbet, perhaps a bit more sweet than melted ice cream. And as always, adding a shot of liquor will soften it up; this is handy if you find that sorbets softened only by sugar are too sweet for your tastes. Neutral things like vodka are handy since they'll work with any fruit, but sometimes this can also be a way to add an additional flavor. And if your fruit works with a wine - strawberry-rose and blackberry-cabernet are both pretty good - then using wine instead of water will soften it very nicely. Finally, I noticed the juice vs puree point. I've never made sorbet with juice, but I suspect that'd be prone to being really icy. I've always used pureed fresh fruit; it'd have to be really good, fresh juice to taste as good as fresh fruit.
I bought some italian pork and garlic sausages from Whole foods. I cooked them on a low heat, they were in the pan for probably an hour but the middle remained slightly pink. To be precise, by middle I mean if you cut the sausage the inner 2/4 would be slightly but noticably pink. I checked with a thermometer (which I checked as accurate) and the temperature was at in the 180s, although I could just be measuring wrongly (I cut the sausage open and stuck the thermometer straight into the pinkish park). I tried them still and they taste kind of dry and overcooked. I understand sometimes preservatives are used which makes things pink but 1) These were from wholefoods and there is nothing in them except for salt, garlic, pepper and sugar 2) The outer area near the skin was gray and not pink. Any ideas?
Checking for redness is not a good indicator of doneness. For instance, freezer burned chicken tends to look less red or pink--taking on white spots and a grayish color. Some meats will also stay red no matter what. Think back to every time you saw real pork bacon. Were the meat strips ever any color except red, even when fried to a crisp? The most advised way to check for doneness is to use a meat thermometer, inserted into the deepest part of the meat. Once it reaches a temperature you're comfortable with, that should be sufficient. The FDA publishes a table, which was revised in 2011 here. For some of their meats, I go off of other sources that actually suggest lower temperatures for more desired textures--but some people want a higher guarantee and that's fine. For me, the main reason to heat meat is to eliminate bacteria. This chart illustrates how long it takes to sterilize cook chicken at various temperatures. The bacteria-death-rate chart will look similar for other meats, but might have different temperatures because of different natural bacterias. Often times when I cook, meats come out reddish or pinkish in the middle, and I enjoy that. Edit: This link provides a detailed bio-chemical explanation for why meat will turn brown or not during cooking. Nitrites and nitric oxide are one explanation, but in general a lack of oxygen, presence of carbon monoxide, or certain pH levels in the meat will cause cooked-pinkness as well. Some presence of carbon monoxide is common when cooking in a gas or charcoal oven. Furthermore, a sausage cooked in its casing fully intact will have very little oxygen available to the meat--meaning the iron inside will not oxidize and brown.
I have an Oven Toaster Grill by Oster in 10 litres capacity. I am new to baking and every recipe for egg muffin says you have to preheat the oven but none of them say for how long. This is very confusing baking jargon. So if any recipe calls for preheating, how long should I preheat? P.S: I know there are similar questions posted but none of them seem to answer in general, they are specific to a recipe (bread/cake et al).
When you set the oven to the required temperature and then close the door and turn it on, pretty soon you will probably see the heating element begin to glow orange from the heat. When the oven is up to the selected temperature, the power to the element should then switch off for a while, and you should be able to see the orange glow diminish and start to fade. That is when the oven is considered "pre-heated". My "big" electric oven (regular size, really) takes about 10 minutes to pre-heat, so your little OTG should be quicker -- maybe 3 to 5 min.(?), but watch the element, or, as Jolenealaska mentions, the indicator light. If it has an indicator light, when the light goes out for a while, it's pre-heated.
I have a recipe that calls for ground chorizo, but I don't own a meat grinder and my local grocery store only sells chorizo sausages. Now, I guess I could mince the sausages and maybe achieve the same effect, but my question is, if I remove the casing from the sausage, will the insides essentially be ground chorizo? edit: here's the recipe, http://www.johnsonville.com/recipe/chorizo-mac-skillet.html, it specifically calls for Johnsonville brand ground chorizo, so I'm unsure if it's Mexican or Spanish chorizo. That brand unfortunately isn't sold at my grocery store.
I haven't made them but Stella Parks (BraveTart) claims that her cookies are "bonkers chocolatey". She tweeted, in response to your question: My homemade Oreos are bonkers chocolatey due to the high fat Dutch cocoa involved; if they didn’t turn it that way, I’d blame crappy cocoa. It's unclear whether you made the recipe or not but I think you should try it. Having more chocolate doesn't necessarily mean that it will taste more chocolatey. High quality chocolate used the right way will make a stronger flavor than more, low-quality chocolate. She also pointed out that the percentages of the two recipes are very different. The bakers % of those 2 recipes are v diff, so OP isn’t looking at the whole picture. And she's right. I'm not an expert in interpreting baking percentages but there's a lot of difference between the two. Stella's recipe is more of a cracker/biscuit (UK). There's no egg in the recipe, not much moisture at all, so there's not much to spread. As such, the cookies are rolled and cut out and retain their stamped designs. The other recipe is more like a cake (and the images support that interpretation); liquid egg, liquid chocolate... melted butter. They're rolled into a tube and sliced. This leads to a leavened, puffy cookie that spreads, ruining any design. There may be a way to adjust the Flour Bakery recipe but I think you might find it simpler to start by trying BraveTart's recipe (using a good quality cocoa powder) and seeing what you think.
What I have understood so far: You can slow cook to produce pulled pork/beef/lamb/chicken by applying relatively low temperature for long time so that proteins can denaturate (sous vide can help here to prevent drying out) Before achieving the core temperature, meat is rare which is not pulled. So is slow cooking temperature (sure different for different proteins): same or below core temperature, just for longer time, or somewhat beyond and is that estimated?
You seem to be mixing up a lot of things here. For example, it makes no sense to say "Before achieving the core temperature, meat is rare which is not pulled." To avoid repeating information on the cooking of meat which has been written up on the site again and again, I will assume that you have read and understood Saj's canonical answer on roasts before continuing to read this answer. Now on to details which are specific to your current question: "Core temperature" is the temperature measured at a given point in the middle ("core") of the piece of meat. If your meat is in the freezer, its core temperature is -18 C. If your meat is in the slow cooker, its core temperature is constantly changing. So it makes no sense to say "before achieving the core temperature", the meat's core temperature is per definition the temperature it has achieved. (The information which temperature you want the meat to achieve is contained in Saj's answer linked above). The way I parse the phrase "slow cooking temperature" is the temperature within the slow cooker. I am a bit unsure if you don't actually mean "the temperature which the meat should reach in order to count as slow-cooked" but since in slow-cooking, there is no such thing (see Saj's answer again), that definition would also render your question unanswerable. So I will stick with my first guess. Having defined the terms, the answer to the question is: At the beginning of the cooking process, the slow-cooking temperature is higher than the core temperature. That is because the slow cooker heats up its interior first, but the meat's core takes time to warm up. Due to heat exchange between the meat and its environment, the meat gets warmer until it reaches the slow cooking temperature. From that point on, until the end of the cooking process, the core temperature is the same as the slow cooking temperature.
OK, this has been bugging me for a long time... According to our cookery teacher at school, chocolate contains three ingredients: cocoa, sugar, and milk. If you mix these together, you can "make chocolate". Back here in the real world, this doesn't appear to work at all. And here's why: Chocolate tastes smooth, sweet, rich and creamy. Cocoa powder, by itself, tastes sharp, bitter, and repulsive. You can certainly take a mug of boiling milk and dump cocoa powder into it, and then stir in a little sugar. What you discover is that Cocoa powder does not disolve. The drink tastes absolutely terrible. No amount of sugar makes it stop tasting bitter and horrid. Even adding peppermint, vanilla, or similar still fails to mask the awful taste of the cocoa powder. In short, as far as I can tell, cocoa is nothing like chocolate. And yet it's supposedly the most important ingredient...? Clearly something is missing from my understanding here. Can anybody explain? Probably related: When you buy chocolate-flavoured products, sometimes they taste like chocolate (i.e., delicious), and sometimes they taste like cocoa (i.e., inedible). Why is that? PS. I'm not trying to actually make chocolate. (It's not like it's hard to just buy the stuff!) I just want to understand what the difference is.
When making chocolate the cocoa beans are fermented, roasted, and crushed/ground. They are then sent through huge presses that separate the cocoa butter from the cocoa powder. Chocolate is cocoa butter that has been emulsified with varying quantities of powder and usually a ton of sugar and sometimes milk. The rolling of the chocolate with the butter to enhance the texture is called conching. Cocoa powder will dissolve in liquid if you mix it into enough sugar beforehand- this is how chocolate drink mixes are made. Additionally chocolate is smooth and creamy because of the unique properties of cocoa butter. It can be tempered to form crystals that are solid at room temperature but melt at body temperature. This makes them smooth and melt in your mouth. Another reason, besides unwholesome quantities of sugar, why cocoa powder is more harsh tasting than chocolate, is that chocolate has often been dutch processed where cocoa powder often hasn't. Cocoa is naturally acidic and harsh tasting. Adding some alkalinity to balance its pH makes it much softer tasting- and darker in color. You can buy dutch processed cocoa powder. Remember that some recipes need to be altered to use it- for example if the recipe called for baking soda you would have to use baking powder instead to maintain the correct pH.
I've checked out several recipes and none of them really turn out right. They taste like well... parsley, balsamic vinegar, and garlic. No actual kick to it. Nothing special. I toss the whole thing into a hand blender and serve it raw. I'm not sure if I'm using the right chili. I don't have access to many American chilis, and am mostly relying on SE Asian ones. I also avoid alcohol, hence the usage of balsamic vinegar instead. Am I missing some technique or secret ingredient?
Chimichurri is a very basic uncooked sauce and it does not (and should not) taste particularly good on its own. It is used to enhance the flavor of meat, so I would not try to read much from how it tastes alone. Ingredients 1 cup water 1 tbsp coarse salt 1 head garlic, separated into cloves and peeled 1 cup packed fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves 1 cup fresh oregano leaves (Origanum vulgare) 2 tsp crushed red- pepper flakes 1/4 cup red-wine vinegar 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil Instructions Prepare a brine by dissolving the salt in boiling water, let it cool completely. Chop the garlic very finely and place it in a medium sized container. Finely chop the parsley and oregano and add to the garlic together with the red pepper flakes. While stirring, add the red wine vinegar, then the olive oil and the brine. Transfer to a container with a lid and let it cool in the fridge for a day. It is better to prepare it the day before use so the flavors have more time to blend. You can keep chimichurri in the fridge for 2 to 3 weeks. Source: This is Francis Mallmann's (Well-known Argentinian chef) recipe. This is my own translation from his book in Spanish, but you will find this recipe also in English media such as this one from NYMag Some more tips: Do not use balsamic, it will taste completely different. Red wine vinegar has less alcohol than some "alcohol free" beers (1% or less), and there are ones without alcohol at all in them. You could also boil it first, but for 1/4 cup, in a sauce... you couldn't even measure it. Use dried red pepper in fine flakes, not fresh peppers. If the flakes you can get are from very spicy peppers, just use less. It is not a spicy sauce. A note on fresh herbs As unpopular as this might be, the truth is that chimichurri is traditionally made with dried oregano, not fresh. I personally think it's ok to use fresh oregano and the Mallmann thinks so too, but he does make the disclaimer in his book about fresh herbs being "his own take on it". Parsley, garlic and oregano are the common denominator across both Argentina and Uruguay, but some regions also have variations. As an Argentinian I might be biased. That said, and not being a purist myself: I have never ever found cilantro or capers in Argentinian chimichurri.
For a treat for my lunch, having bought a bunch of Jell-o brand instant flavored gelatin mixes, my husband decided to follow a recipe for "magic mousse", as printed here, involving "Cool-whip" whipped topping and Jell-o mix (gelatin, not a pudding mix). The final product came out fairly grainy, however, a texture I found somewhat offputting. Is this expected due to the ingredients in the recipe (clearly chosen for convenience rather than quality), or is this some problem with his technique?
It could just be that it wasn't mixed thoroughly - little droplets of dissolved gelatin intermingled with the cool whip would certainly give you a grainy texture. Whisking thoroughly, or even using a hand mixer, could avoid some of this. But failing that, it's possible that it's simply prone to separation. Cool whip is a sort of fake cream, emulsified fats and water, and the dissolved jello is pretty much water. They might tend to separate a little before the gelatin makes it all set up. If that's the case, you probably have to work a little harder for your mousse; if the gelatin is added straight to the creamy/custardy base, there's no water-gelatin mixture to separate out.
I recently made free-form candy swirls out of chocolate-like coloured candy. When I got to the point of putting it into my disposable plastic piping bag, I had to wrap it in a tea-towel in order to work with it because it was so hot. The candy didn't melt through the plastic, and I could do some basic swirls with my jerry-rigged bag. However, it was too hot to handle (literally) and the slippery tea-towel-on-plastic made doing anything intricate prohibitively difficult. I know most people use candy molds, however I don't care to spend the money on something I use once or twice a year. Are there any tools I could get that could also be used in other applications? (for example, my piping bags and tips can be used to decorate cakes, cupcakes, etc. which I do frequently enough to justify buying a small assortment of metal tips) Are there any techniques for working with melted candy, other than "try not to get burned"?
While you can certainly substitute powdered carob for cocoa, the flavors are distinct enough that you will likely need to adjust your ratios and sugars to make carob blend into a recipe better. Use less sugar than you would for powdered chocolate. I found this description http://www.natural-health-restored.com/what-is-carob.html of Carob, and this comparison http://www.natural-health-restored.com/carob-vs-chocolate.html of carob vs. chocolate. A note about the source http://www.natural-health-restored.com, I have never used this site personally, and can't vouch for its accuracy. It also seems to be centered around Vegan eating, so read into the site's commentary what you will. Additionally, with powdered chocolate, you can never get quite the same reconstituted flavor with other fats/oils as you can with dark solid chocolate (the fats/oils are different from the solid chocolate's original fats). I suspect the same to be true for Carob, however I have no proof. So (without exact ratios): use less sugar than for a chocolate recipe be aware of the flavor difference (don't think that it's spoiled just because it doesn't taste like chocolate) oil or butter ratios may need adjustment Personally, I used carob at a 1:1 ratio and found my carob muffins to be drier (more oil?), stronger in flavor (less carob powder?), and a touch on the sweet side (less sugar?). My suggestion would be to find a recipe made for carob instead of just substituting in one for the other. Good luck!
I have a barbecue sauce recipe that calls for 1 can of crushed tomatoes. I have cans of whole & cans of diced. Could I just run one of those through the food processor and deem it "crushed"? EDIT: I also have a few pounds of fresh Roma tomatoes.
Drain some of the liquid off either of those, whiz it in the food processor, add liquid back as needed to reach the "crushed" consistency.
So I bought the ingredients for a terribly unhealthy microwave burrito enchilada-style casserole recipe today. The recipe, of course, called for enchilada sauce. So I went out and bought Las Palmas brand mild enchilada sauce along with the other ingredients. When I popped open the sauce, the kitchen was immediately filled with the pungent smell of dog food. Having no idea what the sauce was supposed to smell like, I put it in anyway, thinking the smell would go away. After an hour in the oven, the smell was still there, and the heat made it stronger than ever. And when I tasted it, the sauce tasted of dog food. I've checked the can (the expiration date wasn't for another two years) and scoured the Internet, but I can't figure out any reason the enchilada sauce would take on this particular smell and taste. Could anyone help me figure out why? It won't improve the casserole, but it will assure that I'm not insane for having this apparently unique experience.
EDIT: Although the question title says "fruit pies," the question specifies a "fruit custard pie." The following answer relates to custard pies and other pies containing fillings with eggs and/or milk. Actual plain "fruit pies" generally contain enough sugar to prevent rapid spoilage and therefore often do not require refrigeration. If you do plan to refrigerate a plain fruit pie, there's no significant advantage to getting it into the fridge quickly. Pies do not have to come down to room temperature before refrigeration. In fact, most food safety organizations recommend the same general policy for egg-based and dairy-based pies as they do for other foods: don't leave leftovers out for more than 2 hours after cooking. See, for example, recommendations here: Foods which contain eggs and milk, with high moisture content, must be kept refrigerated, as bacteria love to grow in these foods. Failing to put that pie back into the refrigerator before it has remained on the counter for more than 2 hours can make a very merry celebration for the bacteria, but not so good for friends and family. So, 2 hours should be a maximum before refrigeration. As for recommendations about the appropriate time to let cool at room temperature, see here, for example, which states: Cool cream pies at room temperature for only 30 minutes after you take them out of the oven. After 30 minutes, put them in the refrigerator to complete the cooling and to keep them cold. While it says "cream pies" here, the guidelines above in that link imply that such guidelines also relate to custard and pumpkin pies. (The first link above also says the same thing about pumpkin pies.) Basically, the only reason to keep a dairy-based or egg-based pie out of the refrigerator after removing from the oven is to allow cooking and setting to continue. Many custard pies will continue to set a bit while cooling, and putting them in the refrigerator immediately might "shock" them and disrupt this process of solidification. Changes in humidity levels and condensation might also have unpredictable effects on the pie surface while it is very hot. (As for concerns about putting hot food in the fridge, see links to food safety organizations on the subject in my answer here. Basically, you shouldn't put a hot or warm pie near anything that's very perishable in the fridge. Otherwise, you're safer getting it in the fridge as soon as it has stablized after cooking, which shouldn't take more than 30 minutes or so.)
I recently purchased a jar of Very Raw Honey from my local market. I purchased it because it was on sale, but eventually I looked up whether it was safe or not to eat and came across articles such as this and this one. The label on the jar says its 100% unfiltered. Also, I don't know if the articles means truly raw (as in straight from the honey comb) and whether or not the jar of honey I purchased is the same as raw honey that comes straight from the honey comb. Is it safe to consume? Is the Madhava honey the same stuff that I would get straight from a honey comb? Upate: So from the post, honey is safe to eat, which I was aware of, but what about raw honey (at least raw honey purchased in stores)? It's still unclear to me.
If the honey has always had a water content below ~18% and is continuously stored in a sealed container (for instance a glass jar), it is perfectly safe to eat as long as you are over 1 year old. In fact, pasteurized honey is inferior in quality. The pollen and spores will remain in there either way, even if they're dead and can only be removed by (expensive) filtering. So if you got an allergy to that, don't eat honey. But they (pollen, yeasts) are not generally harmful. Botulism is not a concern unless you take medication that reduces the amount of acid your stomach produces. Acid inhibits the growth in the stomach, your (good) bacteria in the gut (after the acid has been neutralized) will then continue to protect you. Since infants don't have sufficient/stable composition of bacteria yet, they are in (higher) danger of getting botulism. But even then, they rarely get infected. No point in taking the risk, tho. Honey is hygroscopic, meaning it will draw moisture from it's surroundings (hence the sealed container). This effectively prevents pathogens to grow, preserving the honey as long as the water content of the honey remains at or below 18%. In fact, here in germany, honey may not be subjected to temperatures higher than 40°C, it may contain no additives at all and the only thing you can do to it is filter the pollen out. We still don't have waves of botulism from honey here. In fact, I have never once heard of one.
We have a small household and most baked goods are not finished before they go stale. For bread and buns, when is the best time to freeze? After knead? Before first proof? After proof? After second proof?
In the book Advanced Bread and Pastry, Michael Suas outlines three methods that he recommends to professional bakers (but also applicable at home) for freezing bread at various stages, roughly in decreasing order of quality: Par-baked process. The bread or rolls are prepared normally and baked normally, but for a shorter amount of time (just until the structure is set). For best results, Suas recommends a relatively high temperature at first to maximize oven spring, then decrease to a much lower oven for the rest of the baking time. Bread should be pulled from the oven before most substantial browning, with just the basic structure intact so the bread doesn't collapse. Loaves or rolls are cooled to about room temperature and then frozen quickly. They may then be removed directly from the freezer and baked immediately, usually at a relatively high temperature. The biggest challenge for a home baker here is potential moisture loss and slight staling during cooling and freezing (as commercial bakeries tend to use a blast chiller). But if done well, the results are basically the same as normally baked bread. Frozen dough process. The dough is mixed/kneaded, divided, shaped, and frozen immediately to minimize fermentation and gas activity. Generally the only modifications are to use cold ingredients and to mix/knead more thoroughly, as the lack of a shaping step after defrosting means that the the gluten must be thoroughly developed during the initial mix. High-gluten flour or added gluten may also help with the final rise. (Gas production and fermentation is then limited to avoid more damage to the gluten structure during the freezing process. It also makes it easier to wrap the dough tightly without much dough expansion during the freezing process.) When frozen dough is to be held longer, a higher yeast content may be used as the yeast activity will gradually die off with prolonged freezing. The best thawing method is slow and in the fridge. This also allows the possibility of reshaping (if necessary) before the final proof at room temperature. Final quality is usually okay but lower than parbaked results, either due to insufficient yeast activity/dough structure after freezing or excessive "yeasty" flavor if more yeast is added to the inital mix offset this. This method is usually best for enriched doughs that can distract from the lack of good flavor development. Preproof frozen process. Here the dough is mixed in the usual fashion, then shaped and allowed to undergo a single proof to about 75% of the usual final size. The dough is quickly frozen. It can then be removed from the freezer and placed directly in the oven to complete its rise and bake. This process is the most temperamental and least likely to produce bread of high quality. Suas only recommends this method be used for things like breakfast pastries with a high butter content -- to distract from poor flavor development and texture -- that will be consumed relatively quickly after baking. But it is very convenient to get a warm "fresh-baked" product quickly with little effort at the end. Still, Suas strongly recommends par-baking over this process for most baked goods. (And the frozen dough process at least allows the possibility for reshaping and controlling the final rise to get a better product.) I've tried the first two processes myself at times, and they've both produced reasonably good results. Like the information I summarized above, I wouldn't recommend letting the dough rise before freezing though, unless you're going to parbake. More gas bubbles mean more ice crystals that will potentially damage the bread structure during freezing. Other answers and comments have mentioned the possibility of doing a complete normal bake and freezing the final loaf. That's also a reasonable possibility, but if I'm to that stage and I know I'm going to freeze some bread, I often pull out some of the loaves a few minutes early, so I can defrost/finish baking them in the oven. The one concern to that is that parbaked bread (in my experience) tends to stale a little faster after it is defrosted and baked, partly due to moisture loss during two stages of baking and two stages of cooling. If you don't plan on eating most of the bread right away after baking, I'd probably tend to either freeze fully baked bread (and defrost at room temperature), though the "frozen dough" method may be acceptable for richer bread doughs or doughs that don't depend on a high rise (e.g., pizza). The choice of method really depends on how much work you want to do at various stages, the type of dough/bread, and how quickly you plan to eat the finished bread.
If I am making a stew say, does it matter if I dump in onions, garlic, bell pepper, tomato all at once or one by one? My speculated reasons are: Giving enough space for each ingredient will allow it to dry out and the maillard reaction or caramelization to take place Ingredients have different 'hardness' so will take shorter or longer to break down. To get a similar consistency, each ingredient needs to be added at the right time
Your first suggestion is only partially valid. Let's say you add your onions first as many would do. After that your stew as a whole will most likely be too wet to get a maillard reaction going for subsequent additions. For me, the order of additions to a stew is roughly determined as such: Put the ingredient that you most want to caramelize in first (usually meat or onions, but never garlic) If you have ingredients that transfer their flavour more easily to fat than water, always put them in early, because once your stew becomes more watery that flavour will no longer be transferred Put items that rely on their fragrance in late (For instance fresh basil) Bell peppers always go in late for me, but that is partially because I always peel them Give everything a cooking time that allows the ingredients to transfer their flavour to the stew while also maintaining some texture (basically your second point) In the end it all comes down to adjusting your process so that everything you add to your stew is able to do what it's there for, which might be adding flavour, texture, colour, wetness or anything that takes your fancy.
I just got diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder and have to avoid both grains and tomatoes. I was wondering if there is a way to substitute tomatoes to create a nice sauce that would go well with sausages and spaghetti squash? If a non-tomato sauce isn't feasible, how does one make the dish not dry without a sauce? I can have (cooked) alcohol-based sauces. Is there a particular alcoholic drink that could be a good base for a sauce for sweet pork sausage and spaghetti squash?
Try it with butter, salt and pepper. That's my favorite way to eat spaghetti squash!
Separating cream from raw milk does not have high yield. This should be easier when the milk is concentrated, as we want to separate the watery part of milk, which is already disappeared in evaporated milk. I have not seen any guide for getting cream from evaporated milk. I have two questions: Is it possible/easy to get cream from evaporated milk (it should be tricky)? Is it possible to use evaporated (concentrated) milk instead of cream in recipes like ice cream? In general, I am curious why evaporated milk is not popular in recipes. Preparing evaporated milk from raw milk is not difficult (even at home). It can be prepared much easier than cream with better yield. NOTE: My question is about evaporation of raw milk, not commercial canned evaporated milk. In other words, I am referring to high-fat evaporated milk.
Even if you produce your own evaporated milk, it is highly unlikely to help you in separating the cream, because it is only reducing the water phase of milk; it doesn't change the fat phase. Nothing in this process makes the cream easier to separate from the water phase. You may be able to use the reduced product in some recipes where cream is called for, but it is not going to whip, and it will now have a cooked flavor from the cooking necessary to do the evaporation. You certainly could use it in a frozen dessert similar to ice cream, but it will bring the cooked flavor, and have a slightly different texture due the different balance of sugars, proteins and fat compared to cream.
As I mentioned in another question, I'm about to undergo a 100 lb suet-to-tallow rendering process. The problem is, as much as I love tallow, I've never rendered suet myself before and I have a million questions (though I'll try to keep it to a few key points). After a lot of research, here is what I've come up with: Trim, chop, and partially freeze suet Run it through a food processor Render with or without water Strain and cool It seems there are 3 rendering options for the typical home kitchen: Oven at 250°F Stovetop on low/very low (I have an electric range/hobs) Crockpot on low setting And then there's a difference between rendering the fat by itself, or rendering it in water. A few convincing articles imply that rendering it in water creates more "pure" tallow. I figure since I have so much to render, I'll try all three methods above simultaneously. I have: two crockpots; an enameled cast iron dutch oven and a few large stock pots for the stovetop; and a lot of casserole dishes for my two-rack oven. Even doing them all at the same time like this, I imagine it's still going to take a few (many?) rounds to render it all. I'd like to minimize that time if possible since I don't have room to store the suet for long, but producing quality tallow is equally important as I'll be giving some away. My questions: Are there any methods for doing this in a typical home kitchen that I'm missing? The grill, perhaps, or is that too dangerous? I also have an electric wok. How can I do this as efficiently and quickly as possible? For example, can I stack casserole dishes in the oven or do I need to keep air flow maximized and just do what fits on the two racks at a time? How hot can I have the oven and stovetop without risking quality loss? Should I render with water or without it? Will it really make it more pure if I use water, and if not what will? About how much tallow can I expect to get from 100 lbs of suet? I have a rough estimate of 20 gallons in my head but that's based on numbers I found from a Google search.
I think the original post's method is pretty good. Rough chop, semi-freeze, food processor re-chop into pretty fine bits. Then 1 cup of water for every 3 lbs of suet. I've done this in a turkey fryer - and propane - outdoors. 25 lb batches are perfect. you DO HAVE TO stir with a long flat-blade wooden 'spoon' every 15 minutes or so, once it starts to rapidly boil. And getting the propane output low enough not to ruin it is also a challenge. But it works. 25 lbs of suet yields about 18 lbs of tallow. Water-free tallow. You aren't doing rendering until the strained product is absolutely clear and not cloudy with watery bits. The watery bits, should you not finish the rendering go quite bad and intensely nasty smelling, in short order. A few days or a week! At room temperature. Bugs like to grow in that watery medium. Dead-bodies nasty. So make sure your tallow is totally water (cloudy) free. Totally. Can't stress too much.
What do you do with juicer pulp? Does it still contain any flavor to make something out of it? How about vitamins?
In some asian cuisine, you can sun dry the pulps (or remains) of fruits. Use the dry pulps to stir fry meat dish could be tasty because these pulps gives out fruity aroma to the meat and also absorb excess oil from the meat to balance out the dish ingredients.
I recently spotted grapeseed oil at Costco. I've been considering switching over from Canola oil; are there any culinary advantages or disadvantages of grapeseed oil over Canola or other cooking oils?
Grapeseed oil's high smoke point is good for dishes like stir frys where other oils might burn. However not as high a smoke point as Sunflower oil. Canola oil has a relatively low smoke point which will limit its applications. In addition, Grapeseed oil has a clean flavour where as Canola sometimes has a bitter edge to it. Other oils will have their own flavour characters. Which you use is partly personal taste and partly dependant on what you eat. For deep frying I'd go to sunflower. It's not the cheapest but not expensive either. It gives a nice crisp finish to most fried foods. If the oil is to be used cool, such as a dressing, olive oil would be my choice, simply for flavour. Since olive oil, like canola, has a low smoke piont, I wouldn't fry with it. For a high temperature frying such as a stir fry, your Grapeseed would be ideal. Also look at rice bran oil wich has a very high smoke point and clean flavour. Ideal for stir fries.
The following is my go-to sponge cake recipe: 6 eggs 2 and a half cups flour 1 cup oil 1 and a half cups sugar 1 cup milk 2 and a half tsp baking powder cardamom and saffron First I separate eggs, then I cream egg yolks and sugar. I add oil and mix well, then I stir in lukewarm milk. at this time, egg whites are beaten until stiff-peak forms. Then it's folded into the yolk mixture. dry ingredients (sifted) folded at the end. Goes into the oven (pre-heated/180) until the edges are golden. The issue is, at the stage where I add dry ingredients, sometimes I add it in three portions and I sift it over the batter. But some other times I do it at once. I get different textures, soft and fluffy or quite sense. Is adding flour at once causing an undesired texture?
You want the dry ingredients to be fully moistened and dispersed throughout the liquid with no dry clumps. You also want minimal agitation so that you don't destroy the retrained air, introduced by the whipped egg whites, which acts to give a fluffier texture to the finished cake. If you sprinkle the dry ingredients over the batter in multiple steps and gently fold in each addition, it requires very little agitation to moisten and incorporate; little more than lightly pressing over the surface with a spatula and a gentle fold or two. If you add all at once, you have to mix the batter more vigorously to get the dry ingredients to fully incorporate. This will cause the batter to deflate and will produce a denser cake.
I'm thinking about making a sauce for burgers. Requirements are the following: Tastes of concentrated egg yolk - for me perfection is the taste of yolk in a fried egg For seasoning salt and pepper only should do the job, but I'm keen on trying some MSG Thick, almost mayo-like consistency I've tried many hollandaise recipes, with double boiler or blender methods, but nothing quite satisfies me. Butter in those recipes just weakens the taste. I also tried thickening with flour, however the texture change was unforgivable (maybe I messed this up somehow?) Honestly, I'm cool with just putting fried egg into burger, taste is great, however it's a bit too runny and messy to eat. I'm willing to try and report any ideas, I got like 50 spare eggs :)
Not a recipe, but I will share a technique. Using sous vide you can cook egg yolks to a consistency where they will behave like a sauce. You separate the yolks, and drop them into a container of oil, which is being heated in a water bath. Time and temperature determines consistency, which can range from runny to fudge-like (or hard boiled, but that is not what you are going for). Fish them out, and place them on your burger. Season as you like. Here are more precise instructions.
I follow this recipe to make biscotti and replace 1 egg with 50 gms of butter. So I end up adding 2 eggs and 50 gms of butter.It is always incredibly yummy but I have 2 issues and would be great if I could get some tips or help: I never get uniform sized/shaped slices like in the picture on the website. They are very small on the ends and very long in the middle even though I try to make a very uniform looking logs before baking. Some of the biscotti slices are very crumbly and break when I slice them. I do use a very good serrated knife to slice the log.
Chill this or any cookie dough once finished mixing and before baking. Make your biscotti dough into perfect rectangle logs right to the edge of your pan, with even height and width right across. Use a ruler if you have to. I suspect you have a higher height in the middle - that dough will need to go somewhere when heated, and that's sideways (creating your longer middle baked width). Once you have these perfectly formed rectangles of dough, chill in the fridge for an hour at least. This will really help keep it's shape and reduce any uneven spreading during bake. You could also try slightly increasing your first-bake temp 10-15 degrees as this will help quick set the exterior of the biscotti logs. The only other thing I may mention is the recipe - perhaps you can just slightly scale back the baking powder to help reduce the spread of the dough during baking. Once baked just to set (depends on size), pull from the oven and let cool just slightly. While still warm to the touch, start slicing your cookies to a consistent, even desired width - I really recommend using an electric knife if you have one to make the work a lot easier for yourself. If you don't have one, just work quickly with your best serrated knife. Doing this while still warm will definitely help with reducing breakage and crumbs.
I've tried numerous recipes, watched different videos, and adopted different techniques, but to this day I can't make good plain custard. Some of the issues with previous custards: Egg taste ( I realize this is probably due to me pouring hot over eggs, but I assure you it's not, I do it very very slowly) Deflation (the custard deflates in the middle) I'm assuming this is due to me over mixing, or not adding flour / baking powder. Texture ( sometimes the taste is frigging amazing, but it's either too runny or too hard. I've given up on making custard and by mine "fresh" from a local baker. Recipe I use: 3 beaten eggs 1 1/2 cups milk 1 1/3 cup of sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla Method: Combine until not foamy bake in a water bath until stiff
Custard should taste eggy. This is a feature, not a bug. However, from your mention of flour, I think what you're talking about is a souffle, not something like a creme brulee or along those lines. Would that be correct? Edited based on subsequent clarifications: Ah. Your method is sorely lacking, and your ingredients are off. You need to temper the yolks first, you need to use yolks only, and use cream instead of milk. Here is a smaller version of what I use at work for creme brulee: - 1L 35% cream - 11 egg yolks - 1C sugar - 1 vanilla bean, scraped Bring cream to a simmer with the vanilla seeds and pod (you can use approx 1.5tsp vanilla extract, pure not artificial, instead). While it is heating, beat the yolks and sugar together until just incorporated. Pour the cream into the eggs whisking briskly to prevent curdling. Pour mixture through a fine chinois. Skim off foam, pour into ramekins. Place ramekins in a pan, add water to 1/2way up the sides. Cover pan with foil. Bake at 275 (convection) or 325 (non convection) for approx 40 minutes, until wobbly in the centre but set. Chill until set, eat. The deflation is caused by a souffle effect coming from including the egg whites, which are never used in a custard--custards, creme anglaise, etc, are always yolks only. When you include the whites, air will be trapped inside temporarily, and will escape/collapse when the mixture cools. If you bake until fully stiff with my method, you will get hard and rubbery custard by the time it is set in the fridge. Also, save the whites--they freeze well--for meringues or souffles.
I bought my wife a mozzerella kit for christmas, and we tried to make it last night. We followed the directions pretty closely. I supposed we could have removed a bit more whey at some early steps. It also got up to 112F instead of the called for 105F before letting the curds form. But it never came together or reached the shiny smooth consistency that the directions called for. It would not hold together well enough to pull / stretch. It ended up like ricotta. It was good, but it wasn't what we were aiming for. When doing my Christmas shopping, I noticed that some of the kits were for making mozzarella or ricotta, so I assume that the two have the same ingredients and a slightly different process. So what's the difference in process for the two? I'm thinking that's where we went wrong. The result actually looked a lot like what this cheese making site says will result from using UHT milk, but I checked before making the cheese, and it was just pasteurized (and I just double checked, and it still just says pasteurized).
I have the same problem and went through 3 different brands of milk, thinking they were UHT. However, after some experimentation I determined what I was doing wrong. In my case, after cutting the curd, and while the water was heating back up to 105, we were stirring too much. The key is very slow gentle movement. Just enough to slightly move the curds, and not disturb them. "Stirring" will cause you to end up with a nice tasting ricotta, but not mozzarella.
What are rules about cooking lamb and chicken doner kebab? How many times can the spit be put in the fridge, then cooked again the next day? I have been to a kebab shop where the cook put a huge lamb vertical doner spit in front of the grill, totally frozen. He told me it would take about 20 mins till ready. I asked how many times he puts it back in the fridge. He replied, "Until it's all gone."
ONCE ONLY I am sure rules will vary depending on country etc and which jurisdiction and laws apply. In England my country reheating a kebab would not be recommended *, although even as a customer it is possible to visit shops at opening time and observe that a part used Kebab has been loaded. Reheating it a second time is forbidden *. Local Councils (District Councils etc.[D.C.]) enforce food safety, in accordance with National Regulations. Taking some random councils and their advice Hambleton D.C. Good Practice Keeping part used kebabs or leftover sliced meat is not recommended. It is safer to use fresh doner kebabs each day, and minimise waste by selecting smaller sized blocks of meat that suit the demands of your business. ... When re-heating part used doner kebabs make sure the vertical spit is on full heat and the cooked meat is above +75 ̊C Brighton & Hove City Council Prepare and cook doner kebabs safely throw away any meat you’ve sliced or left on the doner kebab when you close, do not cook or reheat it keep your doner kebabs as small as possible to avoid food waste Ahfield D.C. Safe Preparation and cooking of Kebabs Partly cooked meat which is left on the kebab must be thrown away as it [sic]food poisoning bacteria may be present Raw meat on the spit must be cooled quickly within 1½ hours and put in the refrigerator away from other foods - stored in the bottom of the fridge so raw juices cannot drip onto cooked and ready to eat foods * reheating a kebab would not be recommended You can see Council advice may differ slightly. There are set rules on times and temperature and regulations saying these must be logged. In addition there is Health and Safety legislation requiring Risk Assessments. It appears some councils decide the safest method is to throw it all away at end of Service. Whereas others seem to accept all protocols will be rigorously followed, and there will be no cross contamination between batches of meats so uncooked meat may be frozen or chilled until the next day. * Reheating it a second time is forbidden No wiggle room on that one. Anyone with just the most basic hygiene training knows we are only allowed to reheat once. [National] F.S.A https://www.food.gov.uk/business-guidance/cooking-safely-in-your-business? Reheating food It is very important to reheat food properly to kill harmful bacteria that may have grown since the food was cooked. Reheating means cooking again, not just warming up. Always reheat food until it is steaming hot all the way through. You can only reheat your food once.
I cut the potatoes up. I boil them for 7 minutes and then I fry them 15 min in some olive oil, but they fall apart quickly. When I remove the water from the boiling pan after 7 minutes, the potatoes are already almost falling apart. I have tried to fry potatoes without bowling them for a while, but they still weren't done. How do I get the potatoes not to fall apart and get at least a bit crispy?
I think the clue here is that your potatoes are almost disintegrating after you've boiled them. If they're doing that, then they will only continue to disintegrate when you sauté or shallow fry them, which is what I assume you're doing and that will happen regardless of the type of potato you're using. As others have rightly stated, some potato varieties are less inclined to 'disintegrate' than others, but moving to a waxy potato (firm) may stop the potato disintegrating but it may also not give you the texture you're trying to achieve - crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside. I my opinion you're better off sticking with a 'floury' variety of potato, but modifying your cooking technique to prevent disintegration. I'd suggest trying the following - Experiment with boiling times. It sounds like you need to boil them for less time than you're doing, trying boiling for 5 minutes instead of 7. The potato should be part cooked, but not breaking up, because you'll finish the cooking in the hot oil. Strain your potatoes and immediately rinse them under cold water and set aside to dry. Put your frying pan on a low heat and let it heat up for a few minutes, pour in some olive oil and heat that for a few minutes more - it should not get too hot. Flick in a tiny droplet of water, it should just start to sizzle, if it immediately evaporates it's too hot. You need to cook potatoes in olive oil on a low heat as olive oil can change properties if it's allowed to get too hot. But you also need to make sure the oil is hot enough, the potatoes should sizzle when added to the pan, if they don't it's not hot enough. Practice on getting the temperature of the olive oil just right as this is important to the outcome of your sautéed potatoes. When the temperature is right, carefully tip your potatoes into the frying pan, separate them and let them fry for a good few minutes or so so they crisp on one side, now flick them over and let them cook on the other side. Keep doing this till they're done. Resist the temptation to bash them about and push them round the pan as this will cause them to fall apart. They should not disintegrate but should crisp on all sides and be fluffy in the middle.
I have bad experiences with packing rice for lunch, and having it dry out and get gross overnight (like, I'll steam twice as much rice as I want to eat for dinner and pack half of it away). But it always ends up crusty and hard. When I pack it with a lid on, there's just a bunch of condensed water on the lid, and my rice are still hard and crusty. What's the best way to keep it from losing its moisture? I've tried to search for this, but all the results are just tips on food safety, nothing about quality.
I have a sister-in-law who has gluten intolerance, so she travels with plastic storage bags with rice in them, in case she arrives at a destination or airport where non-wheat convenience foods are not easily available. I'm not sure if she further wraps smaller portions in plastic wrap. This way, when it's in the bag, she can squeeze out every last bit of air out of the bag before/while sealing it. This minimizes air flow and keeps it more moist, I think. Definitely do not put it in the fridge if you do this, because once it gets cold, the starches harden and need to be heated. Room temperature and this bagging seems to work for her, though I haven't asked her about it in great detail. She also uses a stickier medium-grain rice instead of a long grain, just because it seems to retain a bit more moisture.
I am new to this community and I have a question in mind. Spices like garlic , cinnamon etc after drying lose the volatile oil content in them. [HERE, HERE] Though We see fresh garlic in market being sold but that is not the case of other spices like cinnamon , black pepper, cloves etc. Why don't people prefer them fresh? After all if there was a demand, there would have been supply.
Spices are generally comprised of bark, buds, fruit, seeds or stems of plants. They are almost always dried. Garlic is not a spice, rather, it is a vegetable, like onions or shallots. You can, of course, get dried garlic, onions, or shallot. But the drying process does not make it a spice. While spices have a fairly long shelf life, they should be used when fresh. Purchasing whole spices and grinding them yourself increases the shelf life, as ground spices, with more surface area, lose freshness more quickly.
I had some old milk in the fridge that smells like it’s on the edge. I decided to make yogurt with it. While I was heating it, lots of curds started to form. Is it safe to eat the yogurt that I’m making with it?
I wouldn’t. If the milk curdled, it’s a sign of spoilage and the very last thing you want to do now is keep it in a warm environment for a prolonged time. And while many yogurt recipes include a pasteurization step where you heat the milk to near boiling (not all do, btw.), this will not turn clearly unsafe milk (as indicated by the curdling) into a base for a new product. Especially if the process includes a fermentation at warm temperatures for many hours.
I'd like to bake my own bread now and again, but timing things like proving and baking around a regular work day make it practically impossible. I'm not going to get up at 4am to make dough so it proves in time to be baked before work, and the kitchen is rather monopolised by dinner in the evenings. In an ideal scenario I would like to either: Make dough before bedtime (before 10pm) Knock back, second prove and bake around 7am or Make dough at breakfast time Knock back, second prove and bake at dinner time The second approach is probably better as the oven will likely be hot from dinner anyway so less energy wastage. The problem is, I can't leave dough to prove for 8 to 10 hours by normal methodology. I'm wondering if there's some way I could reliably slow the first prove. Thinking slightly differently, I wondered about feeding the yeast in a controlled environment, specific amount of sugar and water temperature overnight, and then making dough with that and skipping the first proving. Any recipes of convenience exist?
For sourdough boules I would usually do the rising in the evening, then shape the loaf and place it on a baking sheet with baking paper. I used to cover that with the biggest cooking pot I had, upturned, which comfortably fit around the loaf. The whole thing went into the fridge and would slow-proof overnight. In the morning, I took it out, removed the pot and left it until the oven would preheat, then dust, score and bake. With the 40 minute baking time (for a 500g flour, 340g water, yeast, salt and sourdough starter recipe, so one loaf), this whole process takes about one hour, including a bit of cooling time on a rack. Of course that depends on how quickly your oven can preheat. In my experience, it did not make a significant difference between doing this at 7pm or 10pm, and I'd usually start the baking between 8 and 10 in the morning. Here are two examples of two different breads I have done that way (both have part whole-grain spelt flour, hence the colour). The first one didn't have enough scoring, but the product is still OK for an amateur.
Amongst other things, I'm making a chocolate & bourbon pecan pie for Christmas in my capacity as family pastry chef. The recipe calls for toasted pecan halves. What is the best way to toast nuts evenly? I assume a low oven is best to avoid scorching, but what temperature and for how long?
An oven is the way to go. Toasting on a frying pan is a pain because you have to stand there shaking it for so long and it is far to easy to scorch if you pause. I have seen some recipes call for low oven temps but I use 350F (175C) for 10 to 15 minutes stirring a few times. Some sources online recommend as low as 5 minutes but I personally have not ever had them done that quickly. They still have to be checked or they will burn. I like to use my toaster oven because it heats up faster and is cheaper to run. I have used an air popcorn popper with good results. Don't overfill it and remove them when they smell nutty. It goes very fast but you have to do them in batches if you have many. For a pie or other sweet applications, I like to toss the nuts in butter and brown sugar and let them candy in the oven. The fat makes it harder to burn them. Obviously this won't fit for all recipes. I personally have not had good results using the microwave. Some people swear by it but it seems to me to make them a little gummy.
I have recently started using a commercial kitchen to make chocolate chip cookies (and other similar types of cookies). The kitchen has a Blodgett double deck convection oven. The problem is even if the cookie looks done on the outside, the inside is undercooked and gooey. I am able to bake in my home oven on a convection setting at 325 degrees F. When I tested that in the commercial kitchen, the cookies were basically raw inside. I've tried different temperatures all the way from 200 degrees to 325 and I still don't get cookies that are good in the middle. I'm not sure what to do at this point...should I let them cool for longer? The sheet is cool before I remove a cookie.
There are a few options: Most bread machines have an option to knead/mix only - you can then take the dough out and shape and bake as you would if you were doing things by hand. You can also get "dough hooks" for most stand mixers (e.g. Kenwood or Kitchenaid), these are a bent arm or corkscrew sort of shape designed to knead the dough, and are what is often used in commercial kitchens: here's a picture of a Kitchenaid one. Edit: Dough hooks also come with some hand mixers, but I can't imagine that this would be any better for arthritic hands than kneading unaided. You can also make "no-knead" breads, these might be quick breads such as scones or soda bread, which basically you mix the dough, shape, then bake. Or they might be a yeast based bread, where all you do is mix the ingredients, incubate to rise, then bake. These last ones are a specialist area of bread baking, so I don't have any advice on good recipes. I would google for highly rated ones. @Joe reminded me in a comment, there are also a ton of recipes for food processors, which basically mix and knead in the the processor. This does not require a special blade, just the standard sharp metal blade.
Can I chop up and freeze mirepoix raw, or do the vegetables have to be blanched first? Thanks!
Yes, you can freeze mirepoix, but it'll be pretty soft once defrosted, as Peter V noted. Onions and celery do not freeze well, though carrots do okay. All three vegetables, when whole, should be blanched for a few minutes before freezing. For vegetable-specific freezing instructions see the National Center for Home Food Preservation's Freezing Guide. It's best to use fresh, but blanched for 1-2 minutes then frozen works okay. I do not blanch diced vegetables for more than 2 minutes.
I often times find myself making decisions about what I'm going to make for myself and my fiancee at work before I go home, and then stop at the store for any needed supplies on the way. Granted this is not always the most efficient way of doing it, but it does have a couple of advantages: Our schedules are often times unpredictable, and its hard to plan meals more than a day in advance. I can always ensure the freshness of ingredients. That small thing aside, there are certain things that are fairly standard, which I can never remember if I currently have in the pantry or refrigerator. Do I have enough fresh garlic in the house? Lemons? What spices do I have in the spice rack? It would be really nice if I could look online somewhere to see what I have in my pantry right now. Does anyone know of a good internet site for managing your current pantry, that might also have a system for managing our favorite recipes? I'm thinking it might be worth the effort to manage my pantry online for the ability to check on it at work for this reason. Does anyone else face a similar problem, and what have you come up with to solve it?
We are not very high tech in our kitchen, but we cook a lot. We keep a fairly standard inventory and when we use the last of an item - it goes on the "List". We buy that item at the big shopping trip once a week.
I'm very curious what gives canned corned beef its flavor. While there are a lot of guides out in the Internet and YouTube that show how to brine and make American corned beef, there is very little information on the canning process of canned corned beef (the ones from Brazil).
what gives canned corned beef its flavor Consider the flavor of canned corned beef as similar to freshly cooked brined corned beef, with these exceptions: The canning process requires product in the can be heated under pressure to 250+ F, this high temperature will change flavor notes and texture. Food labeling standards allow 10% of canned corned beef to be a flavored solution. This will have a large impact on flavor. This will generally be a proprietary trade secret. Canned Corned Beef will most likely be made from lower quality cuts of meat (ie. the one not good enough to be sold as fresh corned beef brisket). This lower quality cut will have a different flavor. Probably fattier. there is very little information on the canning process of canned corned beef I just Googled, you're right, very little info. I do not home can, so I can't provide a lengthy answer. I found a historical recipe here, Ball Blue Book of Canning and Preserving Recipes: Note: That recipe will not provide you with something similar to commercially canned corned beef. It will be a jarred liquid and chunks, it might be better than canned. For information on commercial canning, Google the term: corned beef retort. A retort is what commercial canners use to sterilize canned products.
Is there any concerns (food safety, quality, otherwise etc) with storing dry goods [spices, protein powder], or bottles [wine bottles, pop cans] on top of a refrigerator unit?
The top of your fridge might tend to be a relatively warm spot in your kitchen: it's up high, and the fridge itself gives off some heat. Exactly how warm would depend on your kitchen and your fridge. So it might not be the best spot for spices, since heat can make them age and lose flavor more quickly. Some other foods also prefer relatively cool storage. Otherwise it should be totally fine; most things can handle being slightly warmer than the rest of the kitchen.
In "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", Julia et al. explain that Crème Brûlée is simply Crème Anglaise (Light Custard Sauce) made with whipping cream instead of milk, half the amount of sugar and then chilled. I made a couple of attempts but it didn't set. Here's a shortened version of the recipe: 1/4 cup sugar 4 yolks 1 tsp cornstarch or potato starch (optional, but I went with the potato starch) 1 3/4 cup boiling whipping cream Beat sugar into the yolks until they reach the "ribbon" stage. Beat in the optional starch. Pour the boiling milk in a stream of droplets into the yolks whilst beating. Set the mixture over a moderate heat, stirring slowly and continuously until the sauce thickens enough to coat the spoon with a light creamy layer. During this time the mixture should not go above 165 degrees F (without starch) or 170 degrees (with). I also added an optional tablespoon of orange liqueur for flavour. I beat the mixture at just under 170 degrees for around 30 minutes without it thickening up much. On the second attempt I used more starch (about a tablespoon) and it thickened up, but still didn't set after chilling overnight. Any ideas?
Most creme brulees require baking, however after a little research I did find a recipe in "On Cooking" (Sarah Labensky/Michael Hause) that came from Chef Vincent Guerithault of Vincent on Camelback in Phoenix, AZ and his was similar in that it was not baked. First, just making creme anglaise with heavy cream isn't going to do anything to let it set up into a firm custard. More egg yolks or starch would be needed. Supposing that this really does work and it was something you perhaps did, my guess would be that it was either mixed too much (breaking down the proteins trying to link together) or too vigorously (incorporating air which weakened the protein links). In your description you say you "beat it". Did you beat it or stir it? It should be stirred back and forth zig-zagging across the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon or heat-safe rubber spatula to keep from whipping air into it. Time, temperature, and eggs/dairy ratio are going to be the main issues in getting custards to set. Egg proteins begin to set at 160 degrees but curdle at 180 so there's very little "wiggle" room temperature wise. According to Shirley Corriher's "Cookwise": 2 egg yolks will just barely thicken 1 cup of milk or cream. Her Creme Anglaise recipe uses 5 egg yolks to 1 cup of milk and 1/2 cup heavy cream which is more yolks and less liquid than Julia's and this isn't intended to set up. 1 teaspoon of starch isn't going to provide the thickening power that is needed, it's there to keep the yolks from curdling as easily. The recipe I use and many others I've referenced (including Chef Vincent's), use a ratio of about 6-7 yolks per cup of cream. Also, if using a starch, you need to nearly bring the custard mixture to a boil (as is common in puddings and cream pie fillings) otherwise an enzyme in egg yolks known as alpha-amylase will eat away at the starch bonds and break them down into a watery mess. Chef Vincent's does not use any starch. If you want to use that recipe, I would increase it to 10 egg yolks. After the hot cream is tempered into the egg yolks then return to the heat and cook, stirring constantly, until very thick but do not let it boil. Remove it from the heat and strain into a clean metal bowl and chill over an ice bath to cool quickly. Once cool, spoon into your desired serving dish or a cookie cup and caramelize the top with sugar.
I need advice from those who bake in gas oven without fan. I bake on the middle rack and have an oven thermometer(my oven is -20 deg off). My cakes get baked darker on bottom and paler on top. Cookies can get burnt at bottom if I wait for them to change color on top. The result is that the cookies, puff pastry are not crisp, the sheet cakes are sticky on touch when they cool down. Really need advice from those who had faced and overcome this. Many thanks! Edit: What I really want to know is how to increase the top heat? The cake or pastry is getting baked faster at bottom but since top heat is less though the cake rises fine it does not get browned on top. If I wait longer for it to brown it starts getting burned at bottom.
This is an issue I've had to come to terms with myself. I spent most of my catering life spoilt by having a massive fan assisted electric ovens with space for 24 trays at once. Then one day I left it all behind to work in a tiny 2 chef kitchen where all we had was a bottom heated gas oven. The first 6 months was a nightmare. It's still not easy even to this day but I'll share a couple of tricks me and my colleague have found. Its all about the airflow: Forget about the middle shelf for baking it's useless. It's there for roast joints and ... Stuff. Get your baked goods on the top shelf. The reason you are not getting browned tops is all the heat is hitting the bottom of your tray, by the time it reaches the top of your oven and bounces back down to your food it's nowhere near the temperature required. In order to help cushion the bottoms of your food and direct the heat towards the top, you need to put a tray slightly larger than the tray you are cooking on, on the shelf below. You can add water to this tray for bread and Yorkshire puddings as the steam helps regulate the heat also, but when cooking pastries I find it makes the pastry more likely to split and crack. Locate the thermostat in your oven. In ours, it's at the top right, in the middle. Always ensure there is sufficient space around it for the heat to hit it. If it's blocked in any way you'll find the oven just keeps pumping heat out. It'll be 300c at the bottom but the thermostat will still think it 100c. Sometimes you will find the tops are now cooking perfectly but the bottoms are a little less done. At that point, you will be safe to either move the food down a shelf to help crisp the bottoms or if making scones you can safely flip them over just to finish off. Good luck.
I just bought two carbon steel old pans, numbers 43 and either 6 or 9 (orientation?), at a flea market. One of the skillets has a lot of burned on flaky black very hard something - outside, mostly, on sides and bottom, and some around the top edge of the inside sides. I need to clean them, but they appear to be seasoned okay. The super hard stuff on the outside and inside has me worried. How can I clean that off and start out well? Also, I bought them to use over a campfire, on a grill grate, so they won't rest on coals or wood. Is this acceptable for carbon steel, and if so, are there any parameters for heat or closeness to the fire? At home, I cook almost completely on cast iron and coated cast iron. Are cast iron and carbon steel skillets the same basically in regards to seasoning and cooking on electric, or should I use them more like stainless steel?
You can season these pans by heating with salt in the pan until it is extremely hot. The salt is abrasive and will remove any particles when you rub it around the pan with a dry cloth. Be very careful as the salt is very hot! This opens up the pores in the steel. Remove the hot salt and ad some veg oil, olive oil or what ever you have and let it season the pan. The pan should now be non stick and the heat has sanitized the pan. Remove the oil and wipe with a paper towel.
This question does not have to do with home brewing but I figured someone here would be able to answer. Does scotch whiskey go bad if kept in standard home freezers for a few days? Does it also matter that the air-tight seal has been broken? In other words for opened bottles. It does seem to bubble very slightly when poured out but tastes fine. Just wondering if there is a big 'don't do that' attached to this.
Putting strong spirits in the freezer should not harm them. The solubility of air gases increases at low temperature, which is why you see bubbles as it warms up. Drinks with a lower alcohol content will be affected in the freezer. There is potential to freeze water out of anything with an alcohol content of 28% or lower. Many people use the freezer to increase the alcohol content of their home brew in UK, by freezing water out of it - the alcohol stays in the liquid portion.
I just purchased one pound of swordfish filet and never cooked swordfish before and have minimal experience cooking fish. Any suggestions on preparation? Also what should I look for while cooking it?
I love swordfish grilled with a little olive oil and Montreal steak spice. All the firm fish are great on the grill. Firm fish like ahi tuna and swordfish can pretty much be treated like really good steak, just cook them carefully because you want them left on the very-rare side of things. If you do it in a pan make sure there's hot oil or butter (or both) before you add the fish and don't move it around too much. If you fuss too much with the fish it will fall apart. As delicious as swordfish is a lot of the fish on the market isn't being sustainably caught. Make sure to ask where its coming from. Most of the US and Canada fisheries are pretty good.
A friend and I were puzzled to see "malted barley flour" listed as an ingredient in all-purpose flour and bread flour but not cake flour or any sort of whole-wheat flour. This was the case for every flour brand I checked (two "store" brands and three advertised brands - all U.S. brands). My friend said that would never happen in Hungary. I looked over the detailed discussion on this site of different kinds of flour and protein/gluten percentages, hard wheat vs. soft wheat, etc., but no mention of malted barley flour. So I am curious: What exactly is malted barley flour? What function does it serve? About how much of it is included? (like 30%? or more like 1%?) Do any other countries besides U.S. put this in their (wheat) flour?
Yes, perfectly fine to freeze it. It will last approximately forever, frozen. Related: How long can you keep chocolate in the freezer?
Baked desserts from home and fine restaurants leave no bad taste in my mouth. But catered deserts at my workplace or those purchased from a grocery store leave a nasty aftertaste that I can't stand. I've noticed this consistently for years with food supplied by multiple locations. Frequently I resist the temptation to indulge because the yuck factor after is not worth the initial yum. What ingredient could it be that leaves such a terrible taste in my mouth that has me scrambling for a toothbrush and toothpaste?
If you think of tenderness on a scale, sirloin and tenderloin are nearly on opposite ends of the scale. Sirloin, in general is not a tender cut of meat. Your result has little to do with seasoning or location in the water bath...or even cooking method. Sirloin is a lean and tough cut. Often sous vide can be used to make tough cuts of meat more tender, but sirloin doesn't really have the collagen or connective tissue that will break down like, say, a short rib. If you like the tenderness of a tenderloin, you will never match it with a sirloin. Don't blame your circulator, it is akin to blaming your stove when things don't go well there.
I just came across some instructions on how to store feta cheese, mentioning you can keep it for about 3 months in the fridge in a brine or milk bath: Store the cheese in a brine or milk bath if you do not intend to use it for a long period of time. A milk bath will result in a creamier, softer taste, while brine will add depth to the cheese and retain its pleasant saltiness. To make brine, mix 1 lb. of kosher salt in 1 gallon of water. Place the feta into an airtight container and cover it with the brine or milk. Cover the container with a lid and store it in the refrigerator to keep it fresh for up to three months. From: http://www.ehow.com/how_6496964_store-feta-cheese.html A similar claim is stated here: If you will not be consuming it immediately, store feta cheese in a brine or milk bath. The milk bath will reduce the saltiness and help keep the cheese moist and mild in flavor. Properly stored in brine or milk and refrigerated, feta cheese will last up to 3 months. Feta cheese is not a candidate for freezing. From: http://homecooking.about.com/od/cheeseinformation/a/fetatips.htm I can believe the feta will keep that long in the brine, given the pound of salt that goes in. But I'm more skeptical about the milk bath. Wouldn't the milk spoil a lot sooner and affect the feta too? Or does enough salt leak out of the feta to act as a preservative for the milk as well? Or is the idea simply that you regularly replace the milk (though the instructions don't mention this)? Does anyone have any experience with this?
I’m Greek and have eaten feta all my life. It is common practice for all Greek people to store their feta in milk once they bring it home from the shop, and in an airtight container, in the refrigerator. This does make the cheese creamier and less salty. It also preserves the cheese longer but definitely not as long as 3 months. You will be lucky to get 2 weeks maximum from this method. Feta cheese turns very quickly so it must be eaten as soon as possible. It does not freeze well.
I have a recipe that I've used a couple of times that asks for self-rising flour. Unfortunately, I only have regular AP flour where I am right now. I know self-rising flour is a mixture of AP flour and baking powder, but I don't know the ratio. I've found some estimations online, but they vary quite a bit. How much baking powder do I need for 1 kg of AP flour?
For 1 cup self-raising flour, add 1½ tsp baking powder+ ¼ tsp salt to 1 cup all purpose flour. (http://www.joyofbaking.com/IngredientSubstitution.html) Edit: Calculation added by Sebbidychef: According to http://www.jsward.com/cooking/conversion.shtml 1 cup of un-sifted all-purpose flour is equal to 120g. Therefore 1000 divided by 120 is 8.3 recurring (1000/120=8.3). 8.3 multiplied by 1.5 (1 1/2 teaspoons) is 12.45 , so let's round it to 12.5 (12 1/2 teaspoons or 4.167 tablespoons, rounded to 4 tablespoons), (8.3*1.5=12.45). In metric this is 45g of baking powder. 8.3 multiplied by 0.25 is 2.075, so let's round it to 2 (2 teaspoons), (8.3*0.25=2.075). In metric this is 10g if salt. So for 1kg of flour you will need 45g baking powder (4 tablespoons) of baking powder and 10g (2 teaspoons) of salt.
I find myself favoring the purchase of coffee beans that have visible oil on them. My inference was that this bean had some extra flavor or awesomeness. Am I right, are beans 'better' if they are oily, or more simply, what does that mean about the flavor profile of the bean?
Coffee beans have a natural oil in them. Often beans that have been roasted longer will have more visible oil on the surface. Not really an indicator of quality, though, but a longer roast will be darker, have a stronger flavor, and (paradoxically to some) less caffeine. (At least, this is what I learned when slinging Cappuccinos at a Canadian coffee chain during my college years a long time ago. Someone correct me if I'm mistaken.)
Does anyone know of some good resources to start learning about food chemistry? I am thinking specifically about a description of the chemical processes involved e.g. in cooking/preparing the different foods and their relation with changes in flavor etc. Also: do you know a reliable source to understand what is the purpose of all food additives used by the industry? Here I am not thinking about colorant/preservatives and the like, but more about the "strange supernumerary" ingredients we can see on industrial food's labels.
McGee on Food and Cooking: An Encyclopedia of Kitchen Science, History and Culture will answer most questions on what the chemistry is behind most cooking processes, without being too academic.
A lot of the times when i bring a pineapple home and eat it, i get a semi-sweet and sour taste. How can you tell when is the right time to eat your pineapple to get very sweet pineapple meat?
Usually you can tell when Pineapples are ripen, which will be sweet, when Leaves are loose and can easily be picked from the top The shell has golden colour (but not dark brown, these are getting rotten) The aroma even from out of the shell is strong A typical pineapple that is bought green and unripen, takes one to two days to ripe well. Don't put them in the fridge if you want to ripe them. Keep them out on the counter. As a street food vendor, we always keep them in the truck for one night prior to selling, that ensure the pineapples ripe enough and the juice comes out of it. Hope it helps.
Reheating chicken in the microwave is usually a disaster, rubbery and awful or underheated. In the toaster oven, the meat will frequently dry out. How can I reheat it and keep the texture reasonable?
Try wrapping it in foil and cooking on a very low temperature in the oven or toaster oven. (Our oven has a "warm" setting that's ~170 F.) You can also include some water or broth in your foil packet but it won't penetrate much beyond the surface if the meat has been cooked before. It'll make that 1st bite taste more moist but in the long run it won't do much.
the idea is to add a thickening agent to a fruity liquid to emulsify it well with oil. Basically an emulsified smoothie. The goal is a fruity fatty thick dip or salsa with the texture of mayonnaise. Since you can't emulsify just water/fruit juice with oil, I thought to make the liquid thicker to emulsify it then. This is because I often read "is used as thickening agent and emulsifier". Thus, I wonder whether there are thickening agents that work especially well for emulsification? Options are arrowroot, guar gum, tapioca and other starches. With which thickening agent would it work best? Can someone confirm that it would work this way, or has some experience with a thickening agent for emulsification? Any other ideas how to achieve this are appreciated as well! Edit: with an emulsifier like lecithin it's no problem for sure, but the goal is to emulsify with a thickening agent.
I have experimented a bit and came to the conclusion that thickening agents do indeed work as emulsifiers, although not 100% perfect like real emulsifiers. Yet in scientific papers they are listed under emulsifiers. What happens is, that only approx. 2% of the oil separates again after emulsion albeit they do work, the texture doesn't become as stiff as with emulsifiers. The problem is that the thickening agent made it already thick and creamy, adding oil makes it first a bit more liquid because there's simply more liquid in total. Adding more oil compensates a bit, but then it stays there. (The oil keeps emulsified to 98%) In short, thickening agents do work as emulsifiers but are useless for emulsion, mainly because the liquid is already thick anyway and secondly the textures just doesn't become as delicious as it does in mayonnaise. I had the feeling that starch did work a bit better than fibers like guar gum.
Our well water tastes very good but is extremely hard (220 mg/L). Do I need to make any adjustments when cooking or baking or will it work fine?
If all you're doing is taking clean dry recycled cans, and filling them with food for immediate consumption I can't see there's any food safety problem at all. The can contents would have been commercially sterile when purchased and the tin plate and laquer are reasonably robust - any undamaged surfaces must be suitable for food contact. Watch out for sharp edges, tho'.
I have a muffin recipe for chocolate zucchini muffins. The recipe calls for a 325 degree oven and a baking time of 20-25 minutes. I want to bake these in a 9 x 13 pan as a cake. How long should I bake my cake and at what temperature.
Most of the bake times that recipes give you are very general ideas of how long you should bake something. This is why most of them are given in ranges rather than in specific values. (20-25 minutes instead of specifically saying 21 minutes) The reason for this is because there are a lot of variables when it comes to baking including the thickness and material of your pan and the type of oven you have. The best thing to do when you are trying to bake batter for muffin/cupcake in a cake pan is to start out with the initial time the recipe gives you and then there after, check it periodically with a toothpick in the center. If the batter sticks to the toothpick then it is not done. You can check it every 5 minutes to start off but as the "cake" start to stick less to the toothpick, check more often.
If I want to make a shrimp salad, I put the lettuce and other raw vegetables on the plate, cook the shrimps and put them on the veggies. However, after a minute or so, the lettuce becomes soft, like it's wilting, probably because of the heat. Is there a way to slow this process down? It's not easy to make a simple salad for multiple persons that looks nice when you deliver it. I'm pretty sure this also applies to other vegetables and other cooked food. If not, please mention so in your answer.
Wilting in greens is triggered by temperature, pH, and salt content. To reduce wilting, you can cool the vegetables or shrimp, make the vegetables more acidic*, or decrease their salt content. My suggestion would be to cool the shrimp with an ice water bath or cold running water. This is the most traditional approach for shrimp salad. Alternately, you could apply an acidic dressing before topping, but wait to salt it until the shrimp have cooled to 140F. Alternately, wilting of vegetables adds a rather interesting variation in flavor or texture to a salad. This technique has been desirable and in vogue at various times. Why does this all happen? Plant cells wilt when cooking breaks apart the cellulose-based cell walls, and allows water to escape, causing them to soften. To quote On Food and Cooking (pp 282): When the tissue reaches 140F/60C, the cell membranes are damaged, the cells lose water and deflate, and the tissue as a whole goes from firm and crisp to limp and flabby. Acids will impede wilting, because the cell walls are held together with hemicellulose, and it is "not very soluble in an acid environment" (pp 282). Table salt is a problem, because "its sodium ions displace the calcium ions that cross-link and anchor the cement molecules in the fruits and vegetable walls, thus breaking the cross-links and helping dissolve the hemicelluloses" (pp 283). Calcium has the opposite affect, so if you can use hard water or add calcium salts, do so. *Acidic solutions will reduce green colors(On Food and Cooking, pp 280-281), but preserve texture (282).
Have a great place for Chinese takeout. Love their Lo Mein. It has a great smoky taste. Alas when reheating left overs, the smoky taste is gone. Would like to replace/add to the Lo Mein, but not sure what the seasoning is. Can it be toasted sesame or something else. It really is a great enhancement to the dish. When asked, the Chinese restaurant said they make their own Lo Mein sauce...no help to me.
If I'm understanding your question right, you might be referring to "wok hei," or the "breath of the wok." It's the flavor that restaurant food has because of the high heat of the woks in a professional cooking environment, and home stoves have a very hard time reproducing it. I found it covered in another Cooking Stack Exchange here: What Is Wok Hai And How Do I Get It In My Food?
Example: I have an 800-Watt microwave. Cooking instructions for a certain product say to cook on HIGH for 4 minutes in a 1,100-Watt microwave. How do I properly adjust the cooking time so that my microwave will properly cook the product? Is it simple math (such as 4*{1100/800}=5.5, or 5 minutes, 30 seconds), or are there more factors involved? For the purposes of my application, presume altitude is at or near sea level.
1100 Watt means 1100 Joules per second (energy over time). 1100 Watt over a period of 240 seconds therefore is 264000 Joules. To deliver 264000 Joules of energy with only 800 Watt takes 330 seconds (5.5 minutes), as you expected. As KatieK noticed, there are some additional concerns. A good recipe will tell you to let the cooked product stand for a while. This allows heat diffusion, so all those Joules of heat will be distributed well. But if you cook at lower power, then the heat will already be diffused more. I.e. at lower power, you don't need to rest the product as long. Another difference might be that you're not just heating the product, but you're relying on a secondary effect such as killing germs. For that, you'll need to have the entire product above a critical temperature for a certain time. This in general means that you don't need to adjust the times as much as you'd expect by the simple formula. On the other hand, a warm product will lose heat to the environment over time. I.e. not all of those 264000 Joules will stay in the product you're heating. And with more time spent at medium temperatures, there's more heat loss in a low-powered microwave.
I'm wondering if it's possible to make rice milk at home that's similar in texture/taste to Rice Dream rice milk. Most recipes online are really similar to each other, essentially being, blend some rice with some water, and (either after straining or not, and sweetening or not) enjoy. The two major differences seem to be with the rice being cooked before blending, or raw and soaked overnight before blending. Having tried both now, here's what I feel: - Cooked rice seems to leave the Rice Milk with a viscous/slimy texture - Soaked raw rice seems to leave the Rice Milk with a chalky/powdery texture Both of these, even after straining multiple times through a nut milk bag. The second option seems slightly better to me, just because the slimy texture makes me want to gag, but using cooked rice seems like the more popular option online, so maybe I'm missing something. I noticed none of the recipes call for salt or oil, both of which are listed ingredients in Rice Dream. I'm not sure if that would make a difference for the texture. Does anyone out there have any experience making Rice Milk and know how to make a decent tasting (or at least, decent-textured) batch at home?
Since I'm not sure how to re-post as my guest account, I just want to say that I tried a little variation after reading logophobe's answer stating that he thought an added oil would counteract the chalkiness. I toasted the rice grains (as the linked article stated) before soaking them, and then after blending, I strained the resulting milk once, and then threw the strained liquid back in the blender and added some canola oil, and the result was a MUCH better texture overall. I didn't have Xanthan or Guar gum on hand to try, so I'm still yet to see how the mixture will hold up in the fridge, and if stirring will be enough to keep it this texture. It definitely needed some sort of sweetener still though (in my opinion, but that's probably up to preference), but I feel like the oil, and possibly the toasting, really affected the texture in a positive way, to where it's a much more palatable base.
Many recipes call broth, but broth recipes often omit salt and pepper or in some instances require only a small amount. My question is this: when a recipe, let's say risotto for example, calls for broth, should I season the broth with salt and pepper before ladling it into my risotto? Or should I leave it unseasoned and just season the risotto? Or both? Or does it depend on the recipe?
Old question, but anyway... I hope it is useful to someone My understanding is that the flavors of meat and vegetables pass better to unsalted water. So, if you are keeping only the broth, it is better not to salt it. If you are eating some of the vegetables, meat or fish and you don't salt the water, they will be tasteless. On another hand, if you salt the broth, later is difficult to know how much salt contains your recipe. When I cook, I estimate the serves that I am getting and I use a level teaspoon salt every two serves. So, I never salt the broth broth. I make the broth and I freeze it in portions. When I use a portion of broth on a particular recipe, I salt all together based on the number of serves I am getting. Despite not salting the water, I eat the meat or fish and carrots. Cook the carrots in one piece and the vegetables that you are going to waste in tiny pieces (I use the mincer). This way you increase the surface contact between the vegetables (except carrots or other you like) and the water and they should release better their flavor. You also reduce the cooking time.
Some sushi places serve white ginger flakes with their food, while others serve pink colored ginger. There doesn't seem to be any detectable taste difference that I've found. So, what is the difference between the two other than just color, and, why serve one over the other?
Although white ginger and red (or pink) ginger do exist, the different colors in sushi ginger are from a dye. The color in white sushi ginger comes from the pickling process and the red/pink color in ink sushi ginger comes from an artificial dye (usually E124 -cochineal red- or in other brands beet extract). The generic name for sushi ginger is gari and here's the Wikipedia page. White gari/sushi ginger on the left and pink gari/sushi ginger on the right.
I'm writing a recipe for publication on a site not written for expert chefs. It's a contest with a very nice cash prize. One of my recipes includes meatballs. My final ingredient is dry commercial bread crumbs. The point is just to add them if the mixture feels a bit loose to shape. You know, ground meat varies in moisture content, so if your meat is loose, you just add some crumbs...right? So how do I word that in a recipe that's supposed to sound professional and polished? Mods: If you feel this question is better suited to ELU, feel free to migrate it.
I see two things to address, first identify a few physical properties of your ideal meatball mixture, and second have a verifiable way for the reader to compare their current mixture to what the meatballs are "really" supposed to be like at that stage. Depending on how many words you want to use for this part of your recipe, outlining a very simple "test" for the reader to try may be helpful. Maybe a sidebar section on the page with some instructions would visually unobtrusive, allowing those users who've already made your recipe to focus on your other recipe steps when needed. What comes to mind is using a tablespoon to scoop out a quantity of the meatball mixture, followed by inverting that spoon onto a surface(not slamming, inverting). The ideal meatball mixture probably behaves in a certain way(doesn't spread out more than "x" centimeters/won't leak moisture/etc...I suspect you can come up with the right variables to emphasize). Another example would be to say, "...when the mixture is right, a golf ball sized portion should be easy to roll into a ball and not begin to sag within "x" timeframe(seconds?), or something like that. Pick out the physical properties of the mixture that make the consistency or shape right. Work backwards, try a few trial run "tests"by making a tiny batch that has too much or too little water/fat/breadcrumbs/etc. How does that incorrect-ratio-mixture behave with your tests? Off the top of my head, the easiest descriptors to identify would be: moisture content(how easy is it to squeeze out liquid & how much should come out), consistency comparisons(how much sticks to your hand/feels like wet spaghetti/whatever),and height/spread under specific conditions. Hope this was helpful.