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pwmnvo | Why does simple syrup expire in a week Water doesn't really expire and sugar is a preservative so why does that happen | Sugar only acts as a preservative in high enough concentrations. At high enough levels, the sugar will draw water out of bacteria into the sugar/water via osmosis making them inert and incapable of growing or reproducing. With a 1:1 simple syrup, the concentration of sugar isn’t high enough to cause the osmosis and prohibit bacterial growth so it isn’t really acting as a preservative. It can last about 3-4 weeks though if stored in a sterile container in the fridge. But you can make a simple syrup with a longer shelf life by increasing the sugar concentration and making a syrup with a 2:1 sugar to water ratio. This is strong enough that the sugar will act as a preservative and prohibit bacterial growth and can last a few months under the same conditions. EDIT: figured I’d add as others have pointed out that the time ranges I’ve given do not follow guidelines or code for food service and are instead rough estimates of homemade syrups for personal use. And even in that case you should always check your syrups for any signs of bacterial growth including development of cloudiness/sediment. | 460 |
mv3jb7 | Are the red beans found in Japanese deserts the same as the dried red beans found in a supermarket here in the US If so, how do you cook them so they are sweet? Thinking about making some red bean creme brulee I had at a Japanese fusion restaurant. | Look for Adzuki beans at an Asian market. They’re red beans, but about pea sized, round, and has a white line on one side. It’s usually found dry in a package, and to make the bean paste, you add some sugar to sweeten it. I’ve also seen them in cans. Another way to eat them is in rice called Osekihan. It’s red beans and rice, and it’s delicious! | 459 |
jhqnwg | Aligot; the French cheese potatoes fit for the gods. Why can I not get this right? If you don't know, aligot (Ahl-ee-goh) is a French comfort food cheesy potato dish. I first had it in Toulouse during their winter festival. I can only describe it as "the way cartoon cheese on pizza looks, but in real life", and it was amazing. Below freezing temperature, and this stuff was still stretching and so comforting. Literally tastes like thick liquid cheese. I cannot stress how delicious this is. However, I have been trying for several years to recreate it at home in the US. I cannot. I have searched recipes online, gone to cheese mongers and gotten specific French cheeses, varied milks, added chemicals, and have failed. Every. Time. Does anyone have any success with making it at home? or have any idea on how to actually get the texture correct? | French southwesterner here. Aligot is a pretty easy dish. You need potatoes and a cheese called "tomme des Pyrénées". Just cook the potatoes in steam or water, then when it's done, drain the watern put the potatoes back in, lower the heat to a minimum, then had thin slices of "tomme des pyréenées" (but a lot of it) until you get it thick enough. edit : if you find a place where to find the cheese, if it's a french "deli" or something, try and ask if they have some Toulouse sausages. This is what we usually eat alongside the aligot. Good bread is also a must. And a bottle or two of thick rich red wine from Fronton or Les Corbières. | 458 |
x9roja | controversial topic but culinary nonetheless. Horse meat? How to cook horse meat? I tried braising it and I tried confit it and still comes dry. Braised didn't even fall apart and confit was fall apart but still dry. I tried a carpaccio and a tartare and it's great but anything cooked seems to be dry. And before you start rambling about the morals of eating horse. Just know my culture's primary protein is horse | Horse meat has very little fat, collagen, and connective tissue. So low-and-slow will not benefit you; it'll just overcook the meat. Cook it hot and fast. You can slice the meat very thinly and treat it like Japanese, Koreans, and Mexicans do. | 458 |
g9nv7j | Not sure if this is the right place to ask, but cultures that eat very hot and spicy food such as Thai, sezchuan Chinese, etc, when and how are young children introduced to the heat? I'm introducing my infant to solid food now and it occurred to be that there are places where almost every dish has some element of heat and sometimes that heat is very intense by American standards. | My family introduces spice very slowly to children. They start with very little spice for the kids, and as they grow, adapt and change their kids’ version to suit the kids’ palates. And most kids are dying to try what their parents are eating so sometimes kids are introduced that way... sometimes it works, sometimes it ends up in a very unhappy toddler. | 455 |
yrovrc | When do you HAVE to use dairy milk instead of an alternative in a recipe, in order for it to work? I'm not talking about whether the flavour just wouldn't be the same, like using oat milk in a mac and cheese recipe. The recipe would still work. When are the specific chemical properties of dairy milk critical to the success of the recipe, like for example the coagulation of casein proteins in cheesemaking? | Instant pudding doesn't set well with some non-dairy milks. | 455 |
mirb1s | How do i get my fried chicken spicy? I've been cooking almost daily for a few years now, and I have made fried chicken a fair few times since I started cooking. It usually comes out well, my favorite way is marinating/brining in buttermilk with some hot sauce for a few hours/overnight in the fridge, then bread it with a mix of flour and cornstarch and a lot of spices, and deep fry in sunflower oil. The problem is that I never seem to get the chicken spicy. I know I can coat them in buffalo sauce, or maybe put more chili powder in the flour mixture, but whenever I eat hot wings at KFC, I feel like the chicken is spicy, not the breading. I was wondering how they do it, and how I could replicate this effect, because I think it would elevate my fried chicken game to the next level. Is it just a matter of quantity? Technique? Thank you in advance :) | > maybe put more chili powder in the flour mixture Chilli powder is the wrong spice if you're looking for heat. You could start with adding a bunch of cayenne pepper to your breading mix. Probably more black pepper and way more salt than you're using now if your chicken is seriously bland. I bet KFC is using 10X more salt than you'd ever use. | 454 |
mawynw | Impossible vs real beef Can I cook with impossible beef exactly as i would with real beef? If not, what should I do differently for impossible? | As a product developer and a chef who creates plant based meat substitutes. For the best results on most alternatives: add fat to your pan, and cook on low heat slowly for the best results. Exactly the opposite of a burger which should be seared on high heat when cooking in a pan. | 451 |
vkc8hw | My spice powders have clumped up in the bottle and I can’t shake them up 😭 I have to use the end of a spoon to scrape them out cus the powder has hardened. Any advice on this? E.g those McCormick spice powders | Be sure to not shake the spices directly over a pot or pan. The moisture / steam from cooking can cause this also. Either use a measuring spoon or shake into your hand and put in the pan. | 451 |
bzeq2b | Why are the french fries yellow in France? American here. Recently got back from a trip to France. ​ I had french fries (Frites) at a handful of places, and they were all a deep yellow color. ​ Is this the result of the type of potato used? Or the frying oil? Or something else? | The most popular kinds of potatoes grown in France are: Spunta (yellow fleshed), Agata (yellow fleshed), Bintje (yellow fleshed), Lady Claire (light yellow). The most popular potatoes in the USA are a 5 different kinds of white potatoes (4 of them different Russet hybrids) and Frito-Lay potatoes (a light yellow hybrid). The fries are almost certainly more yellow because the base material is more yellow than is popular here. | 449 |
rnof9y | Is there a difference in “Heavy Cream” and “Heavy Whipping Cream” if they are both labeled 36% milk fat? Are they interchangeable? | They are interchangeable, but read the rest of the label. In the US, a lot of heavy creams have stabilizers like gellan gum, and the vast majority are UHT pasteurized. The former will slightly impact baking characteristics and make whipping / emulsification easier, and the latter will impact setting characteristics in cheese, relative to 'normal' pasteurized or raw cream with its enzymes intact. I don't think either change is completely prohibitive for most recipes, but they might need adjustment. I wouldn't try making your own brie with UHT cream, but clotted cream worked fine for me, contrary to what a lot of articles say. | 447 |
j0f5bb | Touching Food After Handling Raw Meat. I've always been under the impression that once you or a utensil touches raw meat you have to immediately wash your hands or the utensil to make sure it does not infect other food items with bacteria. I wash my hands often and sanitize everything to the point where sometimes cooking gets a little annoying because of how careful I try to be. I often see people on videos (even popular pro chefs) touching things like raw burger meat then touching other items that don't get cooked like tomatoes and what not. My question is, am I being too paranoid and it's not that big of a deal to handle raw meat then touch other things? Thank you! | > am I being too paranoid No, you're doing it right. They're doing it wrong and getting lucky most of the time. | 447 |
d1i4ik | I tried pork intestine and all I tasted was poop...is that normal?? My boyfriend and his friends are Cambodian, I am American. We are at a Cambodian restaurant here in Minnesota that they love, I had never been before. They decided to order the fried (unbreaded) pork intestine to share and as I’m adventurous eater, I was excited to try it. However, to my surprise, all I tasted was poop. I tried eating rice, the soup, and chugging water to get rid of the poopy taste but it lingered for a looong time. The group all thought it was delicious. I asked my boyfriend as respectfully as I could, thinking something was wrong with the food, “Do you not taste the poop in this?!” and he thought I was being silly. So did I happen to eat a particularly poopy intestine or does it always taste like that? | yip. It needs to be rinsed under cold water for AGES to remove most of that smell/taste. | 443 |
gkrhtm | Why isnt seaweed more prominent in American and English dishes despite proximity and access to ocean? | Sea vegetables were definitely traditionally part of British cooking and they’re making a comeback. Samphire is a pretty common ingredient in fancy restaurants now, for example. https://www.naturalbalancefoods.co.uk/community/healthy-living/a-guide-to-sea-vegetables-and-seaweeds/ | 442 |
lep74i | Incredibly Eye-Watering Onions - What's why these? A few weeks ago, a coworker who goes to the foodbank regularly received WAY too many bags of onions from them (I think they were bulk donated and the food bank had to get rid of them.) So she gave some bags to her coworkers, us included. I've been an enthusiastic home cook for the past 18 years and I love onions, so although these yellow onions were small (only slightly larger than pearl onions, about the size of a golf ball) I was happy to receive them. Last night as I was cutting them up for beef stroganoff, I was suddenly hit with chemical-warfare levels of syn-propanethial-S-oxide. I went from being clear eyed to tearing up so badly that it was unsafe for me to continue cutting them because I was basically blind. I ran out of the kitchen and said to my wife "Those are the strongest onions I've ever cut!" I stayed out of the kitchen for about a minute, until I recovered, and went back in - the moment I crossed the threshold to the kitchen the sensation came right back. I put on the fume hood fan and set a burner burning on the stove and barely finished cutting them before throwing them in a waiting pan. After they cooked, they were deliciously oniony (more so than usual). I've been chopping onions of every breed, make and model for almost 20 years. I have NEVER encountered onions this strong - they are an order of magnitude worse than the next worst onions I've ever cut up. Here's a picture of one of the offenders https://imgur.com/gallery/eWitBF2 So I know to use sharp knives and all the usual tricks for stinky onions, but these were so above and beyond what I'm used to that I basically don't want to even use the rest unless they're roasted whole. The only thing I can think is that since they are small, I had to cut many of them up to make the portion of a normal size onion - is that a thing? I would think the amount of syn-prop would be roughly the same per oz. no matter the overall size of the onion. Is the same amount of syn-prop that would be in a large onion just concentrated in a small onion? That said, I was wondering if there is a reason that these onions would be so strong, and also so flavorful when cooked. Is there a specific breed or region where really stinky onions are grown? Do extra-stinky chemical-warfare-levels of stink have any culinary uses? Also, any idea what else to do with this giant bag that doesn't involve cutting them up or roasting them whole? Thanks! | They look like mini onions, we grow those on the farm I work at and they emit like nuclear levels of onioney potency. Leaves me blind and full of snot every time, but they are very delicious ! I use a food processor to avoid the pain. | 441 |
gl8434 | Cilantro soap taste not present in certain Vietnamese sauces. I'm a cilantro soap taster. I've hated the stuff since I was 8 years old and first bit into a leaf at Chipotle. I recently had some taro fries with a vinegar mayo cilantro sauce at a Vietnamese restaurant, and the soap taste was missing. I got to experience cilantro for the first time without the soap. It was light and lemony and amazing. My question.. what made the soap taste go away and how do I recreate this? Thanks. | There are two commonly used herbs that taste like cilantro, saw tooth coriander, and Vietnamese cilantro. Both are grown and used in south east Asian cooking, and both reportedly lack the Aldehydes that register to some as a soapy taste. Vietnamese cilantro is in fact not even from the same family as cilantro and saw toothed coriander (knotweed family vs aster family) and though its harder to get your hands on (saw toothed coriander can be found in Mexican grocers) my bet is that it's what you had. As an aside: I've tasted both and even tested Vietnamese cilantro on two cilantro intolerant persons. Flavorwise I prefer the Vietnamese cilantro; it's like a ever so slightly minty cilantro, whereas I've found saw tooth cilantro to have a dull flavor. And as for my tests, reactions were split, but I suspect the negative taster either strongly associated the flavor with soapyness or just simply disliked the flavor of cilantro and never suffered from the soapy taste. | 436 |
hh36be | Marcella Hazan's tomato sauce: why is the onion not diced? The onion is halved then cooked with the tomatoes for only 45 minutes. Wouldn't a fine dice be more effective for extracting the onion's flavor? If the worry is separating the small cuts of onion from the sauce, wrapping the small diced onion in cheesecloth would probably do the trick. | The answer is yes. But this chef doesn't particularly want the onion to be featured in the recipe. Whenever you see an "italian" recipe keep in mind that Italy was only unified in the mid 19th century and that regional dialects and distinct cultures and cusines exist even now. The use of butter in a tomato sauce hardly exist in the south where olive oil is kind and a tuscan pomodoro sauce often features carrots, and celery along with onion. Some regional recipes may call for a sofrito, while others may cook the tomatoes and veggies slowly in large chunks over a low flame until it's all blended or milled together. The idea of a quintessential italian recipe of any particular dish is a myth. Even extremely strict minimal recipes like aglio e olio, cacio e pepe, ragu di salsiciccia, ect. will have variations in technique, ingredient quantity, and preparation from chef to chef, family to family... This recipe is one interpretation of a tomato sauce. Whatever you do is no less valid. Although addition of garlic in a pomodoro is kind of a univeral italian faux pas. | 436 |
uo7gtw | Is it just me or is cooking chicken to 165F result in overcooked chicken? I've noticed if I cook chicken to an internal temp of 165 the chicken is often dry and tastes overcooked, particularly with breast. However I've tried cooking chicken to 145-150 degrees and the chicken is much juicier and overall better. When I cut through a chicken cooked to 150 it is all white as well. Should I add this to the list of unnecessary FDA recommendations? | Destroying pathogens is a question of time *and* temperature, not just one. per the USDA's time/temp table for meat & poultry Pasteurization Time for Chicken With 5% Fat Content (99.99999% of pathogens killed) |Internal Temperature|Time held at that temp|| |:-|:-|:-| |136°F (58°C)|68.4 minutes|| |140°F (60°C) |27.5 minutes|| |145°F (63°C)|9.2 minutes|| |150°F (66°C)|2.8 minutes|| |155°F (68°C)|47.7 seconds|| |160°F (71°C)|14.8 seconds|| |165°F (74°C)|Instant|| | 434 |
uq8plg | I'm constantly seeing people recommend rinsing your rice and toasting your rice. How do I do both? Should I toast the rice first and then rinse? Or do I rinse the rice and then heat it in a pan until dry and toasted? The first option seems like it would wash away the toasted flavor. The second option sounds like a total PIA. | I rinse my rice good and let it sit for a minute or two in the strainer while I get oil hot in the pot. Then I throw the drained rice in and cook it. It'll steam off that bit of water for a minute but then you'll start smelling toasted flavors after a couple minutes. That's when I add my broth/liquid and cover and cook. I generally always use basmati or jasmine rice fwiw. | 434 |
phd5f6 | Why do Pancakes and Waffles taste different if they are made from the same batter? Made a waffle and a pancake with the same batter and the waffle tasted better | Often, they aren't made with the exact same batter. You clearly stated you tried it with the same batter and people just can't read. The main reason they aren't made with the same batter though, is that waffles tend to have a bit more oil. This brings us to *why* waffles often taste better - surface area. Even if they are both 4" across, the waffle has all those ridges which create more surface area and thus browning. By adding oil, this enhances the browning making it even better. Once you get into adding toppings, those ridges also collect butter/syrup/whatever, instead of letting them run off the food, making it even tastier. In a similar vein, toast tastes better than bread because of the browning, even when using the same bread. | 432 |
lpuunh | Deep Fried food too heavy? Does anyone have any tips on how to get "lighter" food from deep-frying? For example, this week I cooked fried Cauliflower bites. Cut the Cauliflower dipped with buttermilk, into flour, cornstarch, season mix, back into the buttermilk and back into the flour mix. Then I fried at 350f in rapeseed oil for around 7 minutes. Drained them on a baking rack with paper towels below. Had beautiful crisp Cauliflower bites but I and my flatmate could only eat two or three before feeling full, or just weighted down and heavy, almost sickly. Does anyone have any ideas on if this can be avoided (different oil perhaps) or if it just an accepted trait of deep-frying. | Tempura batter is the way to go, you’d replace the buttermilk with soda water and it’s much lighter | 431 |
k25i9e | Controversial question: Pineapple/Hawaiian Pizza without “actual” pineapple? My 5 year old is on a food experimentation kick. He has been requesting unusual food combinations, and I’ve been encouraging his creativity and culinary exploration as much as I can. I don’t know where he heard about pineapple pizza, but it’s all he can talk about. I want him to try it, but my family is very allergic to pineapple. What is it about pineapple on pizza that people enjoy that I can replicate? Could I add peeled apple instead? Canned fruit? Thanks in advance! | I recommend peaches. I've seen it done before on a pizza. You could use canned ones. | 431 |
k61vgv | Is it possible to cook cranberries down in a way that results in a glaze-like syrup I could drizzle on a salad? No matter what I Google, all my results come back as holiday cranberry sauce. I realize I might need to add something sweet during the process. Sorry, I hope this isn’t going against the “no recipe request” rule. It’s just that no matter what I search (glaze, reduction, sauce, etc) Google keeps showing me results for chunky holiday cranberry sauce. Probably because I have been searching Christmas recipes all day. The end destination of the sauce would be drizzled over a golden beet salad. I’m just wondering if this is possible and am I using the correct terminology in my search terms? | I think its because cranberry is high in pectin. At least I’m assuming it is. Since you dont need to add anything to make cranberry sauce. It sets up on it own. If it were me. Id juice the cranberries then make a reduction. | 431 |
lkdpp5 | When tempering chocolate, why do we raise the temperature above the temper temperature before cooling it down and bringing back up? In every tempering guide, they seem the recommend going up to 105f-120f (depending on type of chocolate) then down to 81f and then finally up to 90f. Why not just go to 90f? If at that temperature type I-IV chocolate melts anyways, why go as high as 115f? | Cocoa butter is made up of 3 fat molecules that each have a different melt point. When CB cools, you need those molecules to form beta crystals. You achieve that with movement and agitation. Manufacturers want the chocolate heated to a point that all of the CB is melted as you can't form beta crystals with only 2 melted molecules so they recommend a high starting temp. The higher temp you heat to, the longer it takes you to cool it down so I melt it to just above 100F (38C) and stir it until it falls to 92F (33C) and then use it. The thing about beta crystals is they're like the cool kids in high school. Once other molecules see how to line up and form betas, they follow suit and make more beta crystals and over crystallize your chocolate which is why it gets so thick event though it's the same temp as earlier. Hope all that makes sense. | 428 |
jj73ht | I thawed my fish in a vacuum sealed bag! Help! So I bought some frozen halibut yesterday and threw it in the fridge and fell asleep last night. In the morning, I looked on the box and it said that I was supposed to take it out of the seal. No big deal right? Out of curiosity I looked up what would happen if I didn’t do that. Apparently a bunch of toxic bacteria could have grown on it because of the lack of oxygen getting to the fish! I don’t have a ton of money and this is all I have for dinner tonight. So is there anyway I can save this fish? I don’t want to be sick later. If I cook it at a high temperature or something, will it help? | Thanks mods for keeping this around... I definitely didn’t know this was a no-no! | 428 |
l0x8b0 | Is culinary school helpful for becoming a personal/private chef? I know there is a general disdain for culinary school on this sub and everyone says to work in a restaurant instead, but is culinary school helpful if you don’t intend on working in a restaurant and would be working in a private household? Also wondering if anyone has heard/had any experiences with San Francisco Cooking School? | I’ve been almost exclusively a private chef for the last 15 years- yachts, homes etc. most staffing agencies and personal assistants prefer it on your resume, probably 80% of them. As far as being a good (and logistically proficient) cook- you’re gonna learn more of that in kitchens from more experienced cooks and chefs. You will use every line, prep, and event trick in the book when you’re a private chef. | 428 |
i58u0h | Is it safe to do a perpetual stew in a slow cooker? I have been using the same lamb juices in the slow cooker now for 2 weeks, it has not been off the heat the whole time. I just kept it going by adding wine and bone broth without even thinking about food poisoning! Oops! (I blame the sleep deprivation with a 5 month old) Anyway, I haven’t gotten sick yet 🤞 and it still tastes amazing... can I keep it going or should I be safe and chuck it? | According to the USDA, food can be kept indefinitely above 140F so you should be safe. | 427 |
awybda | Why do chefs hate pressed garlic? I have always used a garlic press but chefs tell me garlic always needs to be chopped — why is that? And what’s the opinion on using a mortar/pestle? | Garlic has a bunch of different flavor profiles depending on how much damage you do to the cells and how it's cooked. In order of increasing potency: * Whole * Roughly chopped * Lightly smashed * Chopped * Finely chopped * Grated (microplane) * Pounded into a paste. Once you have the size pieces you want, the flavor profile changes greatly depending on how much it's cooked. It's sharp when raw, and gets milder as it's cooked more, so roasted whole cloves are very mild and sweet, while pounded into a paste and eaten raw will knock your socks off. If a chef wants the garlic chopped, it's only because that's the kind of flavor s/he is looking for, and not because there's anything wrong with any of the other methods. Any ill-will towards an actual garlic press is probably just because they aren't very good. I've been through a bunch of them ranging from cheap to expensive and in the end every single one broke or became uncleanable (looking at you - die cast aluminum). I'm not actually certain that a knife is faster or more efficient to *use* than a press, but if you factor in cleaning time and that it's just going to break, a knife is a lot better overall. If you need more than a knife will get you, you're probably looking at a mortar and pestle. | 426 |
m6hheb | Ramen recipes say that you need to cool the broth immediately if you arent using it right then. How do i cool down a hot pot of soup without diluting it, leaving it out, or putting it in the fridge? I could put ice in it, but that would dilute the soup. I could leave it out, but the recipes and advice say not to do that because it will make bacteria grow in it. I cant put it in the fridge immediately because its still hot and will fuck up the fridge. Whats the right way to do this? | Ice bath in the kitchen sink is an easy way with no extra gear (immersion chiller, etc). | 425 |
s1d0kw | Why do Americans refer to yams and sweet potatoes interchangeably? The starchiness is very different. My supermarket SAYS they sell sweet potatoes but they’re actually yams. My boyfriend has grabbed yams for gnocchi and a puree but I don’t think they can be used interchangeably for these dishes? | The show High on the Hog (Netflix docu series about African American food) talks about this. I watched it a while ago so I don't remember exactly... But I think it had to do with slaves being brought over and swapping out yams (that they'd eat in Africa) for sweet potatoes because it's what was available there. But the name yams stuck despite it being a different ingredient. | 421 |
sx30tw | How to keep a supply of Avocado that is always ready to eat How do restaurants do it? I'm hoping to have fresh avocado ever day, not when 1 of my 5 avocados are ready to eat next Tuesday. | When ripe, put in the cold room/ fridge until use, they will keep ripening, but slower. | 421 |
fnji6c | Does bay leaf really make a difference? I was making a dish last night that called for a bay leaf, and I went ahead and put it in, but I don’t understand the purpose of a bay leaf. I don’t think I’ve ever had a meal and thought “this could use a bay leaf”. Does it make a difference to use a fresh versus a dried bay leaf? One might say that I’m questioning my bay-liefs in bay leaves. | I always cook with bay leaf because my gramma had a thing where if you got the bay leaf in your bowl at dinner, you had to kiss the cook, which was her. That memory always makes use the good ole bay leaf. :) | 420 |
rvaoz9 | Is there a resource you’d recommend to improve my plating from home cook to better-than-home-cook? Also, how many random plates do you own? The second question is just curiosity. It stems from seeing people post food on multiple types/styles of plates that fit the theme of their meal. Just wondering if it’s normal for chefs to have multiple sets of plates or just lots of random plates at home. | Apologies as this is a bit of a re-post as I have written about plating around here a number of times before. Plating tends to be trendy and publishers don't really like to address topics that aren't going to keep selling, so there are few written resources. And the market for info on plating is 99% chefs and we all learn on the job. But I have accumulated a lot of plating fundamentals over the years from working for a succession of French Master chefs that I am happy to share. The main concepts are: Colour, contrast, construction, and composition. * No brown on brown or white on white. Use elements that are different colours but don't use more than three or four or the plate will get busy. Use colours that are complimentary. You kind of have to pick your shots, mushroom sauce is never gonna be the prettiest kid at the prom. There are ways to work monochrome but its not a personal favourite of mine. * Each component should be distinguishable from its companions. A pureé, a sauce and a pile of beans might taste great but aren't going to be pretty when splashed together. Lord knows I love me a plate of cheese enchiladas with refried beans and rice, but even as a chef I'd be hard pressed to make that plate look like anything other than delicious slop. * Mashed potatoes are freaking delicious but dumped on a plate, aren't going to look good. Use a piping bag or a ring mold to provide form and construction to un-formed elements. Likewise, potatoes au gratin are the bomb, but a scoop of them is gonna look garbage. A portioned block of dauphinoise or a fondant is going to be more elegant. Uniformity of shape and size is pleasing to the eye. And don't sleep on the humble hasselback for an easy but pretty potato. * Work from the ground up. Pureé on the bottom, protein on top, veg under/to the side, garnish strategically. Elements should touch, not be placed separately about the plate. Consider what side of the dish is going to be placed in front of the person eating. No one wants the back end of a piece of chicken, you want that golden skin to be right up in their face. * If you want to get a fancy, invest in squeeze bottles to place dots of sauce, learn how to strategically drizzle things, how to use a spoon to make the perfect rocher. They're getting a wee bit cliché these days, but a few microgreens can go a long way to dress things up, mix of textures, elements and colours are your building blocks- add in nasturtiums, wafer thin mandolined radish and cucumber, citrus supremes and fluid gels and now you've dressed up boring old crab salad. Also, think about the serving vessel- got some pudding you want to serve? Layer it in a stemless wine glass, instant fancy. * When it comes to the actual plates, most restaurants don't have a huge variety of them simply due to cost. Worked for a chef who would shout every time someone broke a plate: "Now I gotta sell 20 fucking cheeseburgers to pay for that fuck up." What you see on fancy social media are often one offs or sponsored. But when it comes to selecting shape/style, often its about contrasting the round against the linear or centralising a dish within negative space. In a restaurant setting its more about designing the dish to go with the plates you already have in inventory rather than the other way around. To learn more, follow chefs on IG whose work you find attractive. | 420 |
ks1ksa | How to avoid blood/marrow/whatever leaking from drumstick bones when roasting? Everytime I roast drumsticks, either in the oven or the air fryer, juice leaks from the bones and leaves red/brown/black streaks and stains in the meat. I don't really mind, but I have small kids who get a little finicky when seeing it. I'm wondering if there is a way to avoid this. Am I cooking it too hot, perhaps? | It’s staining that happens when the legs are frozen. You can buy fresh never frozen chicken (if you can find it) otherwise it’s just an artifact of the meat industry and there isn’t anything you can do about it. | 419 |
eh6sx2 | I bought a 25lb bag of flour from Costco because it was cheaper per Oz, how do I store it and preserve it? The goofed up looking pack. Can I get a huge bucket or something to put it in? | The following is a paragraph from The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Berenbaum: >**Freshness** I have to confess that for years I never believed flour could get stale, as long as I couldn’t smell any off flavors, but I was dead wrong. I learned the now-unforgettable lesson when developing the recipe for the baguette. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t get those lovely open holes in the crumb. I called everyone I could think of, and somewhere along the line someone suggested that maybe it was the flour. What I was using was three years old. I bought a new batch and the favorable results forever changed the way I think about the shelf life of any dry ingredient. I learned that unless you freeze flour, it is essential to date it the moment you bring it into the house and then ruthlessly throw it out after 3 months if it’s whole wheat or rye, after one year if it’s white flour. No ifs, ands, or buts. As flour ages, it loses its strength. If it isn’t stored airtight, it will absorb air in a humid environment or dry out in a dry environment. Only cake flour, which is chlorine bleached, seems to have a virtually indefinite shelf life, if stored airtight. Flour isn’t expensive enough to risk wasting your time with an expired one. Excess oxidation is the enemy of good bread. In the mixing phase, a certain amount of incorporated air is desirable, but in ground flour, undesirable oxidation starts to takes place from the moment the grain is cracked and exposed to air. This is why the whole unground grain can keep for as long as five years, if cleaned and kept dry and cool, but whole wheat flour keeps for only about 3 months. A common practice in milling is to moisten the grains to make separation of the bran easier. One of the benefits of this practice is that the bran flakes into attractive little pieces instead of powdering and merely darkening the bread. If the moistening and drying is done quickly, there is no down side, but if not, the moisture is likely to activate enzymes that will cause the flour to deteriorate more quickly. If you are in doubt as to whether your whole grains are still viable after prolonged storage, soak some of the grains in water. If most of them don’t start to germinate (sprout) after 2 or 3 days, the grain is no longer alive and should be discarded. Beranbaum, Rose Levy. The Bread Bible (Kindle Locations 11203-11214). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition. Sorry for the wall of text, I just copy pasted it from Kindle. I'm not experienced with baking, so not saying that this is gospel, but this book is held in high regard as far as I know. | 418 |
z5ac39 | How would you "elevate" a pretzel salad? Pretzel salad is a holiday tradition in my family, but it's so... weird... like as a whole concept... It's pretzels with cool whip and Jello (my grandma would even serve it on a lettuce leaf to make it a "salad"). I want to keep the tradition alive, but also not have to eat the "traditional" version from General Food's "Joys of Jello" (1963). I'm thinking it could be better with a homemade whipped cream, and I could use mint to be a leafy "salad" component (which I must have because my grandma says so and thats our family's way), but I'm not sure how I could make Jello taste better or what I could sub in to make it taste.... more like a real, cooked food that would come out of a restaurant. Any ideas on what to do about the Jello to make this dish better? | I had never heard of this and uncharacteristically covered my mouth in shock while reading it. For anyone else like me who didn't know what it was: it's a pie and the crust is made of pretzels, I guess the salad is just a serving method? | 416 |
xcer69 | What is a "raft" in context of soup? I am a long time soup connoisseur and cook, and I have never heard of this term. My partner is having a birthday soon and I wanted to make a clear oxtail soup, and found a cookbook recipe that takes around four hours. At one stage you add egg whites, and the book writes that this creates a "raft" for the soup. What does this mean? | As the egg whites cook, they trap the impurities and float to the top, like a raft on a lake, that you can then scoop off. It’s a way to create a completely clear broth. | 415 |
oikf9q | What makes pepperoni turn into those crispy and melty cups? What makes some pepperoni lay flat on pizza and other pepperoni form a tight cup that is crispy? How do you shop for that specific type of pepperoni? How do you get the pepperoni "cups"? What about the pepperoni makes them like that as opposed to the pepperoni that lies flat? | Kenji wrote an article on this. It is actually pretty interesting! | 415 |
wneiko | Anyone ever heard of this Italian dish? Degolini - Garlic, beans, breadcrumbs, tomatoes... My mother's family is Italian extraction but has lived in Pittsburgh for many generations. They make a dish they call "Degolini" that I can't find on Google anywhere. The recipe is below. Does anyone recognize the recipe, and could anyone give me the more common name for it? Any background on origin, region, history, etc would be great. Thanks in advance! P.S. It's delicious. ​ Hand full of Parsley 3 to 4 cloves of garlic Small onion Chop the above together until fine 2 tbs. Oil 1 pound of wide green beans (no strings) (pole beans) 1 handful of bread crumbs--about a quarter cup Salt and pepper to taste 3 tomatoes(cut in small pieces) best if peeled 1 tbs. Tomato paste Add first mixture to beans,tomatoes and bread crumbs. Add three ladles of water--not to cover, only to simmer. Stir frequently. Simmer until beans are tender. Add tomato paste. | The word you are looking for is **tegoline**, which is a word of Venetian origin for green beans. Your recipe is called tegołine in tecia (green beans in a pot, literally). | 412 |
vwn52b | For a veggie tray at a party, do people pick up the veggies with hands or should i serve with tongs? For a veggie tray at a party, do people pick up the veggies with hands or should i serve with tongs? | Always have tongs available. There will be some people that use their hands tho | 408 |
xho3fg | Restaurant Rice? When I go to Japanese restaurants, their rice is somehow yummier than what I can cook! I got a simple rice cooker which does a decent job (better than stove top) but not quite the same. I asked for rice cooking tips once and they said to wash the rice before cooking. I do wash the rice, which improves slightly. Just not as sticky or flavorful. So what can I do to make rice taste as good as how they prepare it in Japanese restaurants? | Use short grain rice. Wash 3~4 times with cold water. Let the rice rest in the rice cooker for about 20 minutes with 1:1 water. Cook rice. Let sit undisturbed for a few minutes once done cooking. Fluff rice. Serve. If you want more flavor, you can add a few thin slices of ginger to the water when cooking, or replace some of the water with dashi. | 408 |
phoh2n | Are chicken thighs really better than breasts? I have heard that they usually come out less dry and softer | I got on a big thigh kick last year and pretty much stopped buying breasts. I learned that each has qualities that I enjoy. Thigh meat is juicier and has more flavor, but breast meat is delicate and goes well with any kind of sauce or gravy. From what I’ve learned, the reason this is even an issue is that big agriculture has bred chickens to have larger breasts than nature intended. The result is huge cuts of meat. Sometimes a breast portion these days is enough to feed two people! It’s tricky to grill or roast huge breasts on the bone without ending up with dried out, flavorless white meat. The solution for me was to buy organic, smaller whole chickens and cut my own breasts or choose them already cut from a farm stand or organic section of the market. Turns out, that like tomatoes, there are “heirloom” species of chickens not fed with hormones and not crossbred to have large breasts. | 408 |
j7yree | What's the maximum amount of water that oats can absorb? let me know if this belongs in /r/cooking instead! Here is my current recipe: 80g oats (i've alternated between steel cut and old fashioned and found no difference) 80g protein powder 900g water 1. put in bowl 2. microwave for 5 minutes 3. stir 4. microwave for 1 minute 5. stir 6. repeat 3 and 4 until the oats threaten to constantly bubble over the edge of bowl 7. put in fridge 8. enjoy super high volume oats the next morning This gives me oats that are super creamy and voluminous, with very little water remaining in the bowl. I want to go to the next level now... **what's the upper limit on water before the oats stop absorbing and I'm left with oat soup? Flavor is not a concern here.** | In general, rolled oats can absorb 120% of their weight in water at room temperature. However, this will vary on flake thickness, instant vs rolled, etc. Source: I have a degree in oats. No, that’s not a joke. | 407 |
n81toa | What’s the best way to ruin prime rib? I’m cooking a prime rib roast for the family this week and unfortunately, about half of the group prefers their meat well-done. I’d normally just make them something else but in this case I cannot. Can anyone explain to me how a restaurant does this? Do you slice a few pieces and put them back in the oven? Cook in a skillet with some of the jus? Any tips would be appreciated so I can ruin this meat as best as I can. | My initial comment: cut their portions from the properly prepared medium rare roast and microwave them because they deserve it. My actual comment: cut portions from the properly prepared medium rare roast and finish to temp in an oven. | 407 |
wznisq | Caramel apples are really just that? Raw fruit? Title. Not from a western country, never had a chance to try one until adulthood. In media they always look soft and fluffy inside, so I assumed the fruit itself was first baked/cooked and then dipped in caramel or candy coating, but when I first had one it was a fresh crunchy apple dipped in sticky caramel. Not only it tasted incredibly weird texture-wise but it was also a huge pain in the ass to eat. I thought then it was just a lazy knock off stall who didnt know the proper recipe but today I've had a though to look it up and apparently it is just that? A freaking Granny Smith dipped in toffee? Can people who live in the US tell me what is it really like? | I wish I was eating one right now. The crisp tartness of the apple coupled with the buttery-sweet goo of the caramel… I’m all about that yin-yang relationship. | 405 |
xm98m7 | How do you get hardened caramel out of a porcelain bowl? I was dumb. That is the only context I will give for this. | Hot water. Anything with sugar in it will dissolve in time. | 404 |
mykyu6 | would it go well if you replaced the water in a bread recipe with chicken stock? or like, added powdered bouillon to the dough? do we think that would taste good? like those nabisco chicken in a biskit snacks? or would it just be terrible? | Someone here replaced the water with Gatorade and they loved the result so I say what the hell, give it a shot. Except don't used powdered bouillion, and if you do use stock, skim off as much fat as possible ​ Source: I used to be a chef and I believe you learn best by experimenting | 403 |
jbrzf7 | How can I make cream cheese frosting super light and fluffy, kind of like Cinnabon frosting? I've been using an imitation Cinnabon cream cheese frosting recipe and honestly it doesn't match the real thing in flavor or texture. Here's the recipe. 2 oz. cream cheese at room temperature 1/4 cup margarine softened (or butter) 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 tablespoon corn syrup 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar I whip this up for like 10 minutes in a stand mixer. Once I place some on warm cinnamon roll, they kind of get goopy. I feel like Cinnabon cream cheese frosting is so airy that you can feel the bubbles pop in your mouth. I'm thinking of maybe trying low fat cream cheese and actually using margarine instead of butter. I'm not sure if that'll be enough to match the taste and airy texture. Do you have any advice? | When your icing is all wrong... YOU MUST WHIP IT | 402 |
iskd1r | Limoncello I accidentally used 80 proof moonshine whiskey in my limoncello recipe. Currently I have the peels of 15 organic lemons steeping in the moonshine in my basement. Is that going to turn into anything worth drinking if I stay the course? Or do I accept defeat and dump it out? | if it's no good you have some homemade lysol 🤷♂️ | 402 |
ph9npe | Is there a downside to buying lemon juice rather than an actual lemon for fish dishes and the like? One of these. You're missing out on the zest I get, but is it not much simpler to just use one of those bottle? From web searching it seems the answer is that fresh lemons taste better, but I live in Norway so I doubt I am getting the best lemons to start with. | I find bottled lemon juice to be quite bitter and not bright compared to fresh lemon. | 401 |
mq4fms | STOLLEN UPDATE! Used 6 packets of active dry yeast... Sorry if this isn’t allowed! Just wanted to thank everyone who commented and gave insights on my question. I ended up using 6 packets of active dry yeast in the stollen. A few good points were: it is a very enriched dough and it had a lot of fruits and nuts in it! And I did scald the milk... bought it down to 109F before adding my yeast. End result: PERFECT... or at least just like the family stollen I get at Christmas. Thank you all so much!! 💕 | Am I the only one thinking OP had 6 packets of yeast stolen from them? | 396 |
hc4hca | Should I have pre cooked my bacon before putting it in my deep dish pizza? I made a deep dish pizza following Babish's recipe. I used raw sausage as per the recipe, but also added some thinly sliced raw bacon. I baked all of this with the other ingredients for 35 minutes at 425f. The sausage seemed cooked, but the bacon seemed a bit soft (not crispy). Is there any chance it was undercooked, or if the sausage is cooked the bacon should be too? | Bacon can be cooked to a point of food safe and not be crispy, if you would want it crispy cooking it in advance would be the way to go. All that rendered fat does sound delicious though. | 395 |
zaoymb | Creative uses for waaay too much leftover sour cream I've got a big tub of sour cream and few ideas of how to use it before it goes off. I don't bake and I already have a big batch of soup to finish off, so those are two categories off the table. Please help. I can only eat so many pirogies. | I’m gonna be honest with what I would do: a big-ass batch of onion dip | 394 |
v7qs05 | Difference between Butter Chicken and Chicken Tikka Masala? It seems to me that those 2 are identical, why are they named differently? | Northeast U.S. here. Anecdotally, when both “butter chicken” and “tikka masala” are offered on a menu “butter chicken” will be the creamier less acidic option vs “masala” being more of a spiced tomato sauce. Obviously not a scientific answer, but growing up in Boston I used to always order “tikka masala” only to find that “butter chicken” was the dish I truly desired from Indian restaurants in other cities. | 394 |
xic7ew | Why is white pepper more commonly pre-ground in Asia compared to black pepper? I notice that in most households and restaurants in Asia (am Taiwanese myself), white pepper, a staple spice in Chinese cooking, comes pre-ground, comapred to black pepper, which is almost ground right before use. Is it a cultural thing, or does ground white pepper really loses less aroma? | Ok so I spent a lot of time in southern China where peppercorns are cultivated heavily. The real answer is that when you grind peppercorns (black or white), it exposes the oils inside to the air and it starts to lose its spiciness and oxidize, giving pre-ground pepper that stale, metallic flavor very quickly. In black pepper, this flavor isn’t desirable. That’s why black pepper grinders are so commonplace - the fresh black pepper has a much cleaner flavor that’s preferred so many places grind it fresh. The opposite is true of white pepper (actually the same peppercorn, just without the black outer skin) The white peppercorns are produced by soaking the skins off, which can give them a slightly fermented flavor depending on the length of the soaking process. Once the peppercorns are then ground, that fermented flavor combines with the metallic flavor of the oxidizing oils. This gives the ground white pepper a strong, funky smell/taste that develops over time, and this flavor is actually often preferred to the cleaner, just-ground white pepper flavor especially in *certain East Asian cuisines. If someone is using just-ground white pepper, it is usually like other comments mention - it’s similar enough to black pepper when fresh ground that you can use it as a substitute when the lighter color is important to the final dish aesthetic. *edited to reflect that this differs from region to region, some cuisines will use fresh ground white pepper for its lighter flavor | 393 |
hcyc9r | Is it worth peeling the skins off canned chickpeas to use in homemade hummus? I've tried making hummus before and in an effort to achieve, I peeled all the skins off. It was really tedious and really prevented me from having fun experimenting and perfecting my hummus. The idea of not peeling the skins makes me not want to make hummus either because it won't be the best. Is it really a waste of time to peel? What do you do? | Boil the chickpeas 20 minutes. Dump half the hot water. Fill with cold water, stir. Skins should start floating to the top. Dump some water, skins will go with. Repeat a few times. Smooth hummus is worth it. I've also been told the skins are hard on the stomach and make you fart, not sure of the veracity of that part though. EDIT: For anyone getting here from a google search, I should add this method only gets about 70% of the skins. I hand pick the rest of by gently squeezing the chickpeas, and find it to be worth the time for me. You decide what you like! | 393 |
aib84n | Is leaving the electric stove top burners on a good idea? Hello /r/askculinary! I have a specific question and I thought you all would know. My mother in law comes over to our house to stay the weekend sometimes. every morning, before everyone has woken up, she turns all four of our electric burners on in our kitchen to "warm the house up". I don't like it, but she does it repeatedly and claims it's safe. She set off the fire alarm this morning! It's annoying regardless, but I'd like to know if there really is a fire hazard here like my mother always told me. Thanks! | No this is a horrible and unsafe idea. Heat radiates and can catch stuff around it on fire. Not to mention someone can accidentally touch it. When they're on low, you can't tell sometimes with electric. Especially the old one with coils. | 389 |
dxljbo | At my restaurant we are not utilizing our duck carcasses. What are some specials I can do with this. I've tried foie gras or making a stock for the risotto tha goes with our duck but my chef isn't sold. I need an idea to show my chef that we can do something delicious with it. | You should be: Rendering first at 80c getting the rest of the fat off. Then remove the extra meat and make rillette etc. Then you roast on high for 20 minute then into a sauce pot. In the end your carcass should weight about 60-80g and then you can grind that fucker down and add it to your herb bed. I run a zero waste kitchen. | 388 |
kdowv8 | How rare can I eat salmon safely? I like my fish/meat as rare/raw as possible without poisoning me. I'm aware of sashimi-grade fish, but this question presumes this fish is not that: How can I know when a fillet of salmon is eatable? It seems that if I cook it, the whole thing eventually turns white and flaky, and that's a good sign it's safely cooked, but is there an earlier indication, or some other guidance, that would allow me to safely eat the fish before it becomes white and flaky? Also appreciated would be alternative cooking methods that preserve the texture of the salmon while making it relatively safe to eat. I'm definitely aware that not all harm can be ameliorated, but I'm looking to get myself to the realm of "normal risk" I take, similar to eating sashimi-grade fish. Thank you! (Everything I found searching online evades the question, and just says to make sure it's cooked as much as possible.) | This article covers everything about raw fish pretty well including the temperatures you need to freeze it in order for it to be safely eaten raw per the FDA, the risks associated with eating it below the recommended temp, as well as what the term "sushi grade" means (spoiler: whatever the person selling the fish wants it to mean since there's no regulating body that determines what it means). | 387 |
5h79dh | how do I make my mac and cheese not taste like whatever meat goes in it. whenever I add a meat to it everything just becomes meat flavored. for example: add sliced hotdogs, even bits without any hotdog taste like I'm eating hotdog, it hardly even tastes like I'm eating cheese to be honest. it's very offputting. | Don't put meat in it | 387 |
k1p1rh | Why is this plate bleeding? Warmed up a completely white Mikasa plate in the oven and this dark red stuff came out on the front and back. It washes right off. https://imgur.com/a/t7VcJSm | ive been a potter and ceramic mold maker for years, toss this shit out! the manufacturer failed to fire this plate to vitrification or some other equally as toxic mistake happened and they deemed it a waste of money to refire or remove from market. trash this bullshit. its leeching toxic metals into everything edible it touches and your water supply and depending on which metals it contains (for example manganese) your skin. based off the color its probably a low fire earthenware and youre possibly eating bentonite and iron lol. the problem here is that this is now so defined you can see it. even if you cant see it it has been doing this every single time in invisible amounts. smash it so no one else finds it. | 386 |
gbspik | Why are mussels so much cheaper than clams? I thought this would be as simple as a google search, but alas. My local Shop Rite sells 2lb bags of mussels for $4.99 a pop; with their thin shells and fatty bellies, that's enough to eat well for at least 3 filling meals. Clams, on the other hand, are $6.99/dozen, and that mostly thick shells with a bit of meat; basically enough to sprinkle over a single serving of pasta. Why such a drastic difference? The clams are farmed while the mussels are wild, but even farmed mussels are only a dollar or two more a pound | Mussels attach themselves to something then live their whole lives in that one place. Clams move around and like to hide in the sand. From an aquaculture aspect alone it’s much easier to cultivate mussels than clams so therefore they can be produced much cheaper. | 386 |
v6cdnm | What beans are these? They serve them at my favorite Mexican restaurant, want to cook them at home. Here is a picture. I can't tell if it's something I get at the grocery store, or the Mexican market. I've tried asking them before but my Spanish isn't good enough to get a solid answer. Thanks in advance! https://imgur.com/a/BzsXap2 | Peruano beans. They are smoother in texture and lighter in color than pintos. | 384 |
sf3cy1 | What sauce are the round black dots Hello everyone, I have recently eaten tuna salad and it was damn awesome. https://m.imgur.com/a/HAk1Krg However, out of all things I could not make out what is the sauce they made for these black dots. It was a bit sweet and was not salty at all (no soy sauce). I am banging my head around this for couple of months now, and I just can't figure it out. | I think it's a balsemic reduction. Balsamic vinegar cooked with sugar, do not smell it while doing this, considering it looks a bit thicker then just vinegar. | 383 |
iiwxup | Would ground ribeye make good burger meat or should it be a little leaner? Thinking of the one on the left Usually I do a mix or short rib and chuck, but I have this on hand... any ideas? | Here is a recipe from ya boy chef john that uses a ribeye to make burgers. Not everyone may agree with your choices, but that's just you cookin. You are after all the right guy to choose the fate of your ribeye. | 383 |
xozv9g | Why no pork stocks in Western cooking? I was watching a show about Korean soups the other day (A Nation of Broth on Netflix) and I noticed how many pork-based stocks they used, which got me thinking that I have never seen a Western recipe involving a pork-based stock, beyond putting a smoked ham hock into a poultry stock (with the main flavor still being the poultry). Why are pork-based stocks so unpopular in Western cooking, despite their apparent popularity in some other cuisines? | Down south we just put the hambone into stuff like beans and greens. | 380 |
zymzmp | what can I do if I'm short 25 ramekins for creme brulee? I've got a party of 50 on Saturday I need a way to make 25 or so more but preferably unmolded or something .any hints or tricks.. I'm short 25 ramekins for creme brulee on Saturday.. any tips or tricks to unmold and hold them them for individual plating.. | Rent ramekins from a party supply store? | 378 |
yamgjf | Is using a hand mixer with plastic bowls a bad idea? Recently I made frosting in a plastic bowl. After beating it and scraping the sides, I noticed small pink bits (my bowl is pink) in the mixture. I tasted it and it was horrible, tasting toxic and plastic-y. I think it's my mixer scratching the bowl, putting those bits in the frosting. Is that even possible? My bowls are pretty old though and they're losing their efficiency. | Normally it's fine but if anything is scraping off, the bowl's done & needs replacing. Whether age or UV or both, even mixing with a fork is breaking off bits. Your instincts are right: replace it immediately. Enough time out in normal daylight will destroy the high-quality original Tupperware. They didn't have anti-UV additives then... or at least, didn't realise how important they were. Get new kit. | 378 |
fq9awd | Why is it not standard to add salt when first making homemade pasta rather than when we boil it? Just curious as to why we add it when we boil pasta rather than adding it to the flour before mixing in eggs. | My understanding is that it effects the gluten in the pasta. Salt actually strengthens the gluten which could result in a tougher, chewier texture. This isn't to say that you can't add a bit of salt, just that too much could have adverse effects on your pasta. By seasoning the water you are not causing problems in the dough itself. | 377 |
athxee | Every Japanese steakhouse's dressing You know the stuff. Orangey milky ginger dressing. So so good. Poured over iceberg lettuce, one cucumber, maybe a radish slice and sometimes a carrot slice. It's like the Japanese version of every pizza place salad ever. But the dressing. I have looked everywhere. Tried a hundred different bottled versions. Nothing close. It has to be available for sale. Every place is the same exact. There is no way it's a recipe. Anyone know where or what? | Makoto ginger dressing is in most grocery stores I go to and it's spot on. It's in the produce section - not in the salad dressing aisle because it's refrigerated. I've also made my own using various recipes and adjusting to my taste. Look for one that has carrots in the ingredients. | 377 |
c2zky7 | Why not use cilantro stems when it doesn't matter for texture or presentation? I made a cilantro vinaigrette recipe yesterday where you're basically liquefying cilantro in a blender. The recipe called for leaves only. It seems like a huge waste of time separating leaves from stems in this case since it doesn't affect the texture. | Liquefying? Go for it. ​ Stems are usually fine, but I hate biting into one in my Banh Mi and dragging a six inch long piece out that ends up flopping into my beard. | 375 |
ekrcvx | Watching Rick Stein’s India recently, I noticed that everyone from street cooks to top chefs were using these very long, very thin and viciously sharp knives. Tried searching for them but don’t know what they are called. Any ideas? | They're called *bled* or *baleda* and that just means *blade* -- they are very cheap, very disposable, and often made from ANY scrap metal available and there are professional knife sharpeners who ride around on a bike with a pedal grinding stone who will sharpen the street vendors bleds until there's practically nothing left. You can buy replacements from him or from just about any stall or shop that trades in metals. They're not fancy or unique or specialized. They're just cheap and effective. | 374 |
ohgczv | Why do so many things float when they're cooked? This is something that I've been pondering for a long time and I thought of it again tonight as i was cooking some frankfurts. So many, completely different things are ready when they float, for example gnocchi, dumplings, suasages. What's the physics behind this? Why does it apply to so many different things? Is it a coincidence or just a convenient way of saying things have been cooked for long enough? | For most starch based things, cooked (gelatinized) starch can only hold onto 2 water molecules whereas uncooked starch can hold onto four water molecules. So, starch gets hydrated with four molecules of water, then when it gets gelatinized, two of those molecules get released. Because gelatinized starch creates a nearly watertight network, the extra water gets converted to steam, but is trapped so things float. For meats, a similar thing happens, but it's the tightening of the meat protein matrix that squeezes excess water out, and some gets trapped inside and converts to steam. | 374 |
qu1tra | Did pastry chefs once make sprinkles by hand or are they the result of industrialization? I can't imagine how these were made before machines churned them out | Historically, from 18th century. They were/are called nonpareils. Edited because I can't remember how to spell anything ever. | 374 |
pzhqvm | FDA says raw chicken lasts 2 days in the fridge. When I buy chicken, it as a 'sell by date' that's 7 days from now. I'm confused. There's no difference between the fridge at the supermarket and my fridge.. so I don't get this. If FDA says raw chicken lasts 2 days in the fridge, why does raw chicken have ~7 day sell by dates on the package? Maybe I'm dumb. Please help. | Supermarkets use Modified Atmosphere Packaging which extends shelf life by using a mixture of gases like nitrogen and carbon dioxide for poultry. They also have those liquid absorbing mats to reduce spoilage. | 372 |
rqmsju | Roux recipe for gumbo states “stir constantly for 45 minutes” - constantly? Like nonstop constantly? If they *do* mean nonstop, are there any secrets or tricks to browning it without wanting to rip off your own arms? I’ve been stirring for 45 minutes, nonstop, on medium-low heat. Roux recipe says is supposed to be “chocolate brown” & mine after 45 minutes is barely golden. If it’s barely golden, how much longer is this going to take? Another 45 minutes? What the heck am I doing wrong? It’s just flour & oil, add heat & stir! Help? | Yes, pretty much constantly, at a certain point it can burn easily. I recommend checking out Alton Brown's oven baked roux technique. It is an arm saver. | 372 |
hxgyku | My ghee went bad, but started to smell like the most delicious cheese... did I not remove enough solids when I made it? As title says. I made a ghee and it was good for a couple of months but I noticed a mold in it, and that it started to smell like awesome cheese! Does my ghee turning into quasi-cheese mean that I didn't strain it well enough when I made it from butter? | You probably didn't cook it long enough. The presence of water in your ghee will give rise to the growth of mold, which is why it smells like cheese. I've been making two pounds of ghee every two weeks for almost thirty years, and there's an art to it that you will learn with experience. I have burnt ghee, and that is so painful you are not likely to make that mistake twice. I let the butter cook long and slow. The solids get very brown (but not burnt), and the bubbling noise that occurs in the early stages of cooking is almost completely silent by the end. The noise ghee makes while cooking is due to water. Maybe 5 minutes before I know it will be done, I turn off the heat and let it continue cooking under its own heat. Then I ladle it through a clean white handkerchief into a clean, dry jar. I make about two pounds at a time because we go through it quickly (it's virtually the only cooking fat I use), but if you use it more slowly, you can keep it in the fridge during the summer, and take it out several hours before you need it. Ghee is clear when hot, but as it cools it becomes opaque. My ghee is always a beautiful, deep golden color, because the browning of the ghee solids is what gives the color and extra flavor to ghee. Good luck! EDITED to add: I don't deep-fry any more, but ghee is amazing for that. Back when I did deep fry, I would re-use the ghee a maximum of four times. When I had a bunch of old ghee accumulated, I washed it and made soap out of (mixed with olive pomace oil). The resulting soap looked and smelled faintly of parmesan cheese, but it was a great soap! Twenty years later, I still have a bunch of it left. The cheese smell disappeared when washing, and eventually faded away altogether from the remaining slab of soap.. p.s. For anyone wondering, my lipid profile is just fine. | 371 |
n0tgdu | I just got eggs from a farmers market next to my shopping center, should I refrigerate? The dude there told me that they chickens are fed fruit and nothing is injected. And he had them hanging outside in california sun, even tho he dod have them that way, should I refrigerate them? Or is it fine leaving them out? The yolks are more orange and have a softer flavor | If he was not refrigerating the eggs, that is a good signal that the cuticle has not been washed off. However, there is no actual harm in keeping an egg chilled if you are unsure. I would check the washing question when buying the next dozen. | 370 |
qjnazi | Putting pasta in cold water, not when it's boiling? My friend makes pasta by putting the pasta in cold water, and then bringing the water to boil. I've always thought you put the pasta in when the water is boiling - is this something that some people do, or are they just strange? Personally, I find that the pasta is quite gummy when done like this. (I don't really know how to bring it up with them, though, as I did comment with surprise the first time I saw it and they acted like I was the strange one!) | It‘s a little easier to control cooking time when you bring it to the boil first. That‘s also why on the packaging they calculate cooking time with preboiling water as they have no way of knowing how long it takes your stove to bring water to the boil. | 368 |
gtyqaw | Getting Lemon Flavor into Pasta I love lemon based pasta sauces at restaurants. A common dish is a lemon cream sauce. But no mater how hard I try at home I can’t get that infused deep flavor. I bought some lemon extract and that helped a bit. Of course I use zest as recipes call for. Once I added extra juice but then it tasted to ‘tangy’ as opposed to the more developed flavors I’ve had at restaurants. Any tricks/tips?? Thanks!! | Have you tried blooming your zest in warm oil or butter to bring the flavours out? Could also be a matter of adding more salt. | 368 |
zj5tbu | When braising, why must the top of the meat stay out/above the braising liquid I've often heard that when braising meat, the meat should not be totally submerged in the liquid. Why is this and what would be the effect of braising meat at different depths? Say 20% uncovered vs 50% uncovered vs 80%? Tried searching my question first and didn't find it asked before so hopefully not adding spam to the sub. Thanks in advance. | because then it wouldn't braise. ot would boil or simmer. the braising is the meat becoming 'charred' and roasted above the liquid. the liquid portion serves two purposes, the first is it acts like a marinade, and adds flavor. the second is it shields the submerged part of the meat from direct heat, letting it roast longer and more evenly without burning or drying out. thisbis why you typically flip the meat about halfway through, so the other side can roast while the other simmers. being 50% submerged means when flipped, the part that was above is fully submerged and the other is fully exposed with little to no overlap. the liquid also absorbs flavors and fat from the meat and anything else in it, and can be made into the best sauce or gravy after cooking. | 368 |
qq33dp | How do you use cinnamon? It doesn’t dissolve in coffee, it doesn’t dissolve in milk, it doesn’t dissolve in butter or coconut oil. I tried to sprinkle it on apples before baking them or microwaving but it’s… weird texture idk Do you need to whisk it super hard? Should I try to amalgamate with a milk frothier or hand mixer or what? | So for coffee, what I do is sprinkle cinnamon on my dry grounds. Then I brew my coffee as normal. This way the cinnamon steeps with the coffee. Then I throw it out with the grounds. | 367 |
ksd1ga | Can I re-use the olive oil from my garlic confit to make more garlic confit? I love spreading those little nuggets of garlicky bliss on just about anything, but it can get expensive to use so much oil. Can I be thrifty and re-use the olive oil from a recent batch to make more today, or would that damage the quality or oil itself too much? | As you use the garlic, you could also use the oil in cooking. That way you aren't wasting all that olive oil, and your eggs or whatever will get a flavor boost. | 365 |
mpp7wt | Any steel is pizza steel? Since I can’t afford $75-to $150 for a pizza steel, I grabbed a quarter inch plate of steel about 13” x 13” for a couple of dollars. It’s just a piece of steel, not a Gucci Pizza Steel from Williams Sonoma, with holes for hanging and my coat of arms lasered in. Can I use it for pizza or chicken or any other thing for which one might want to use in the oven? Or will it give me rickets or some kind of osis? Thanks. | Make sure that you’ve burned off any coatings, cleaned it well and go for it. At one point I needed an 8 foot griddle for a pancake breakfast at a large convention. The chief engineer at our hotel bought a piece of cold rolled steel 1/2 inch thick . Welded up a steel frame for it, added 6 inch casters and mounted gas burners under it. Polished the top well. It Worked great after that we used it for many groups at breakfast even on the beach. Wheel it anywhere hook up a propane tank and serve breakfast. | 364 |
or37yr | Is crust actually more nutritious than the rest of bread? Probably a terrible food science question, but I know tons of parents tell their children to also eat the crust on bread because it's supposedly more nutritious. Is there actually any truth to that? Would the bread crust be more or less nutritious than the rest of a bread loaf? | The outer crust of bread contains pronyl-lysine, an antioxidant which is generally considered good. But all milliard reactions, including the browning of bread, create a carcinogen (acrylamide in this case) so it kind of cancels out. Short version: eat the bread you like, do something else with the bread you don't. | 363 |
va2g3j | Anytime I cook marinated chicken breast on the stove, the marinade and cooking oil burn before the meat is fully cooked. What am I doing wrong? It’s not my preferred cut of meat, but sometimes I marinate chicken breasts for about a day and then try to cook it on my stovetop in my stainless steel pan. I wait for the oil to get hot (before it starts burning though) then add the chicken breast, and cook it on med high heat. but the marinade and oil ALWAYS end up burning and make my apartment super smoky before the chicken is fully cooked. Last night my chicken was on the stove for about 15 min on med high heat and the internal temp didn’t pass 155 degrees in the thickest part (I tried flattening them as much as possible). But I couldn’t allow it to continue to cook as everything else was burning and smoking. Am I doing something wrong? Are stainless steel pans just not the best to use in this situation? I’ve tried cast iron but I have the same problem with that too (but I’m not as skilled with cast iron as other types of pots). I appreciate any and all help. | Stainless steel pans are great, but you rarely need more than medium heat. Unless you are boiling water or searing meat (that's not covered in a marinade), then you should lower the heat. Especially in your case, where things are burning on the outside before they're cooked on the inside. BTW, 155F is perfect to pull the chicken breast. It'll reach close to 165F with a 3-5 minute rest. So just turn your heat down next time. | 362 |
zd8kfc | Maple Syrup I own a restaurant and serve a fried chicken and waffle sandwich with real maple syrup. I've had complaints that the Maple Syrup is too thin and asking if I could possibly thicken it so it adheres better to the waffle. How could I do that? Would I even want to do that? Are people so used to the fake stuff that they don't understand real? TIA | If people are complaining about wanting the cheaper (thicker) stuff, there's really no reason beyond pure hubris to justify the expense of offering real (thinner) Maple syrup. Give the customers what they want, save some money in the process. You could always say you offer real maple syrup as an up charge. | 359 |
xtc2ap | MSG with salt or instead of salt I got some MSG today. I was wondering whether I should use it along with or instead of salt if the recipe doesn't call for MSG. | With salt. | 359 |
czrsd2 | Maple syrup is a Spring food. So why do we associate it so closely with autumn and winter? Was doing some research but couldn't find historical precedent beyond "it tastes super good with apples and pumpkin." We got us any food historians up in here? | I'm betting is because it was stored for consumption during* the leaner months. When winter comes around in the north woods, easy-to-consume high-calorie foods are really valuable. You can't really forage for much and you need to burn a lot of calories to stay warm. Plus, when the syrup runs, it's still fucking cold out. EDIT: Wow my top comment of all time...educated guesses sure can accumulate a lot of karma! | 358 |
ee68rq | Why does no one practice the strict food safety promoted everywhere on the web? Is it because it's impractical? Everywhere on reddit people will tell you to NEVER leave any food out for more than 2 hours. That cooked meat should stay in the fridge for 3 - 4 days MAX. Everyone on the internet sounds very strict in food safety... But nobody I ever know practiced that! My mother (and everyone really) take the meat out the fridge at night and let it sit on the counter until morning to defrost (and we live in israel). Been doing it for decades and never got any poisoning. After a big meal on Friday we might still eat some of the leftovers on Thursday. And it's not only my family. And that's not to mention food preppers. I have never seen anyone I know implement something remotely close to the strict food safety preached on the web, and mostly we are all fine. So how much practicality is there to it? | As a chef, we have food safety standards drilled into us from day one not only because of inspections, posted safety results, etc but truly because how we handle food can impact every one of our guests every day. Avoiding cross contamination, being alert to allergens, stock rotation enforcement are all designed to protect our guests. We are obsessive about labels, dating, cleaning, freshness. And not just because we could get fired if we fuck up or get sued, we can actually kill people. I once had a fry cook screw up where he was cooking lobster wontons so I got to watch an allergic customer whip out an epipen and stab her own thigh right in front of me. The US in particular has heavy food safety regulations- mandatory pasteurisation, radiated products and cold transport of things that are often left out in Europe like eggs. And much of what you read around here about food safety is coming from US based people. That said, I think it is largely regional and generational. Growing up in France, our butter sat out for days. My aunt who grew up during WWII will eat things that have seen better days because she experienced rationing. | 357 |
xpl9sz | Was just given 50 lbs (each) of Chipotle Seasoning and Jalapeño Seasoning Hoping this falls into the exception of bulk quantities because I honestly have no idea what I’m going to do with all of this. The title pretty much sums it up - I’ve got 100 lbs of spices sitting in front of me. | Donate it. Seasoning is a luxury for places that have to bulk out dishes with starch in order to feed lots of hungry people. | 357 |
ngx8ut | How to make carbonara sauce stick to the spaghetti? Tried to make spaghetti carbonara. Recipe: 250g spaghetti, 100g pancetta, 3 eggs, 30g parmegiano. After everything is cooked, i put the spaghetti in the pan with the pancetta. When it's cooled down a bit, I add the carbonara sauce made from the eggs and parmegiano cheese, as well as some of the starchy pasta water. The result is still quite 'liquidy'. How can I make it more 'saucy'? | A couple of interesting suggestions here regarding reducing the pasta water (as in boiling it down), but what about just using less? I usually throw the pasta in the pan and stir to get the fat that rendered from the pancetta to coat the noodles. Then mix in the cheese-egg mixture. From there I add starch water AS NEEDED to get the consistency I want. Just my approach. Hope this helps. | 355 |
fzgqf9 | How can I safely prep meals to drop off for my elderly mom during quarantine? My mom is 78 with underlying health conditions, so we need to stay apart, and we are only seeing her shouting hello from the curb when we drop groceries off for her. I'd like to bring her some homemade meals, since she is basically living on grocery store deli food, but I'm really worried that I might expose her to the coronavirus if I prepare the food in the wrong way/somehow contaminate it, or if I don't package it correctly. What can I do to package food for her to either eat fresh, or to defrost from frozen, with a minimum of possible cross contamination from handling the food and packaging? Can I give her things like bread that will probably be handled a bunch out of necessity? How can I help her stay safe both during cooking and packing it up? I know it would brighten her day to have some home cooked meals. Thanks! | Serious Eats did a comprehensive write-up on the possibility of spreading Coronavirus by food. The short answer is that you're highly unlikely to spread it via prepared food. https://www.seriouseats.com/2020/03/food-safety-and-coronavirus-a-comprehensive-guide.html | 354 |
io7nl2 | Does cooking meat with acids cause the meat to toughen? My whole life I thought that adding some kind of acid (lemon juice, dijon mustard) to soup/sauce while cooking meat inside, will cause the meat to SOFTEN faster (especially with beef, which takes a long time to soften altogether). Now I saw some comment that it's exactly opposite, and I can't find anything in the Internet besides marinade articles. So how is it guys? | Acids do actually break down the collagen and connective tissues that can make meat tough but mostly only on the surface of the meat as most marinades and cooking liquids don't really penetrate the meat much Tenderness is really more related to temperature and cook time than anything related to sauces or seasoning But if you are marinading meat in something acidic it will eventually start to get mushy if you leave it sitting for too long But mushy and tender are different things and no one really wants mushy meats | 353 |
ckrqdw | Can’t eat immediately after cooking — common problem? I’m a pretty good home cook, but whether I’m cooking something very nice for guests, or just an Alfredo sauce/curry/soup/wev for my family, I find lately that I cannot take even a bite or two for about 20-30 minutes right after I’m done cooking. It’s like my nose and stomach are overwhelmed with sensation. I’m tasting as I go along of course, but the idea of eating is repulsive. This is inconvenient for me (eating cold leftovers alone later) and looks weird to guests (I think.) Anyone else have this problem or have solutions to offer? I’d be so grateful. Thanks. | Two things : * Cooking is often hot, occasionally stressful work (especially if it's something "nice" for guests). This can definitely suppress your appetite. Try dishes that you can mostly prepare ahead of time and might only require a brief assembly or reheating before eating. * You can get taste fatigue. Smelling, essentially, is tasting. You are smelling the food constantly as you cook. By the time it is done, you might be tired of it! Have you ever had someone walk into the kitchen and remark "wow, that smells great!" but you don't really smell a thing? That's exactly why. Being able to walk away from a meal before serving it, even for a few minutes, can make a big difference. Again, plan ahead so you don't need to constantly be in the kitchen right before the meal. Maybe ask someone else to stir something for a minute while you go set the table, or make something you can keep warm in the oven for a few minutes while you walk away before serving. (On a side note, this is why sandwiches actually do taste better when someone else makes them for you.) | 352 |
j6y54n | What foods should white pepper be used on instead of black pepper? I’m trying to get a better understanding of how white pepper is used. I rarely see it used and I’ve never used it but, I’ll be using it in a Thai chicken recipe I found. | White and black pepper are the same berries from the same plant. Black pepper is dried immediately after harvesting, causing the berry’s skin to turn black and wrinkled. White pepper instead is first soaked in water and has the skin removed before drying. Both taste like what you think of as “pepper“. Though they do have slightly different flavors due to the different ways they’re processed. In general, most people consider black pepper to be slightly spicier and more pungent and white pepper to be slightly more subdued as well as herbal or earthy. White pepper is traditionally used in a lot of Asian cuisines like Chinese, Vietnamese, and Thai. I believe it’s also pretty common in Swedish and Nordic cuisines. And as others have noted, it’s also used in French cuisine in light colored dishes where black pepper would stand out visually. | 352 |
gfixwo | Why do nonpariel capers come in such narrow jars? And is there a secret to getting them out without a special tool? I usually pour them into a bowl and then try to pour the brine back in after I get the capers but is there a better way? What's the reason behind this elegant but inconvenient packaging? | I put a small strainer over a 1C glass measuring cup, and pour the whole narrow mess into that. I take the capers I want from the strainer, then back into the 1968 Worst Container of the Year winner, and pour the brine back in. Then I curse a lot as I wash two additional items after dinner. | 350 |
b3ndad | My fiancée can’t eat spicy or flavourful foods. This might not belong here. However I don’t know where it does. I am a foodie. I eat everything, despite developing gastric issues and being limited, I still eat everything and I always have. I have a fiancée, she is the opposite. She grew up in a household where they didn’t even season or salt their food. Sounds like hell. I would like to slowly change her tastebuds. I want her to be able to eat spicy foods, spicy currently to her, mild to the rest of us. As well as enjoy things like mushrooms and bold flavours and acidity. The way she described having a breakfast sandwich that had a tiny piece of chilli flake, was that her mouth was on fire and she couldn’t handle it, So I want to know. Is it possible for me to somehow change her tastebuds? It sounds like she’s hypersensitive to anything that isn’t plain. She’s also open to all of this. This isn’t some weird secret plan of mine. | Whew lad. This is going to be a bit tough. You're trying to build a lifetime's worth of palate in a mind that's already comfortable eating bland food. Normally, the way to expand your palate is to just eat a lot of different things. It sounds simple, but the fastest way to do it is to get acclimated with the ingredient itself. As in, eat it straight and continue eating it. So grab a whole bunch of spices and have a little tasting party. Smell each spice first. Look at it, then taste it. See what it does in your mouth. Keep a glass of water nearby for palate cleansing. There will definitely be some mental hurdles she has to get over. These might be linked with an intrinsic gag response from eating new foods. Keep a bucket nearby. See which ones she can like, she can stand, and which ones she hates. Keep a list and start making dishes that features the ones she likes. When you get bolder, start making dishes with the neutral spices in the background. Then start featuring those spices. Then do the same with the ones she hates in small amounts. Super small. Then work up again. There's some people who won't like food if they know what's in it. Its weird sounding, but if you ever see a child stop eating quiche after you say it has spinach in it, you'll know what I mean. You might have to keep some spice blends confidential. No one likes all spices. Preferences are different, so you're never really going to get her liking everything. But in general, start in small concentrations of spices in meals and increase slightly until it's something both you and her can enjoy. In the end, that's what it's about, right? For capsaicin spice, that's a whole other beast. Basically spicy peppers are loaded with vitamin c, but hurt you. Your body wants this vitamin c since you can't make it naturally, it releases endorphins while your mouth is burning to encourage you to keep eating this murder food. Tolerance is built up over multiple meals. Start on the bottom rung of the Scoville scale and move up. From bell peppers up to poblanos. If you're feeling gutsy, up to jalapenos. Getting up to habanero might be too cruel. Same as before. Little bits here and there. You can even do a little tasting party with peppers if she's really into it. Do little tricks to keep the peppers heat at bay. Remove seeds, roast them, etc. But have some ice cream nearby. This is a problem that has many facets because cuisine had many facets. Your mind, memory, social norms, and toungue are all pieces of what makes food seem delicious. And who knows your fiance might also be a supertaster. If that's the case, she would rock as a sommelier. This might take some patience and many years. It may not even work at all. At adulthood, her likes and preferences might be locked in. At the very least, you could give it a shot. Good luck! | 350 |
wgiuzp | Update] [Rare Ingredient] My daughter really wants to forage for dragonflies for me to cook. Can anyone point me to a resource for how to humanely kill dragonflies so I can batter and fry them? Dragonflies went into the fridge in a container with air holes (one dragonfly per container). They sat in the fridge for 4 hours until they were essentially dormant, and then they went in the freezer overnight. I took them straight from the freezer and prepped/cooked them. I did a flour, egg, seasoned flour breading. And I fried them at 325F for a minute on each side, and then I held them at 225F for about 15 minutes while I finished other stuff. They are, in fact, like soft-shelled crab. Pretty darned tasty. [They look fun too.. | I never would have done this but good on you for exploring your daughters curiosity. | 349 |
o8x606 | How do I effectively peel the outer skin of an onion? Per the title, how do I peel off the outer skin/membrane of an onion? The inner one can be peeled rather easily but the outer one is really hard to peel | Cut in half through the root (leave the root on). Then peel off the outer layer + 1 layer under it. Often that one underlayer isnt fully formed and is partially onionskin anyway. | 347 |
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