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3orckt | Kenji suggests resting scrambled eggs for 15 minutes before putting them in the pan to cook. Why? So, on twitter, Kenji from Serious Eats posted his two scrambled eggs recipes. Nothing too crazy, both recipes look delicious, depending on what style of eggs you like (large curds, or custard-like). But in both recipes, he suggests letting the eggs sit for about 15 minutes before pouring them into the pan. The recipe all says that the eggs will "darken in color significantly." So... what's up with that? Why do they darken, and what's the point of letting them rest before cooking? | The discussion is in the actual book. But essentially salt will dissolve some proteins in the egg which will then allow it to set a little looser when you cook them. Result is more tender scrambled eggs with less moisture loss (they don't leak out water as they sit). They darken when raw because light passes through the denatured proteins more easily than the tightly wound ones. It doesn't change the color of the cooked eggs. Btw: 15 minutes is ideal but even salting them just before scrambling is better than salting in the pan or after scrambling. | 275 |
pyuq6v | Accidentally used too much alcohol, and I'm wondering is there a way to fix my jello shots? Hey guys, I wasn't thinking when I was making jello shots and I accidentally used twice the amount of alcohol that the recipe i was following called for. I'm worried that they wont set. Is there a way to fix this without starting over completely from scratch? This is how much I've used of everything: \-1 box jello (3oz) \-1.5 c water \-0.75 c white rum \-0.75 c triple sec \-1 c peach schnapps ​ Or is this a lost cause and I should just throw it out and start over? :( | Double everything that wasn't already doubled and mix it together before it sets and have a double batch? | 275 |
56v5e0 | What makes some cuisines highbrow and some lowbrow? Like, why are French and Japanese food staples of fine dining while Chinese food is typically cheap fare? Just wondering. | Essentially, race relations and perceptions of the country. The Atlantic did a great piece on the issue. They tracked food prices for restaurants in New York in different country's cuisines over the years and it tracks pretty evenly with American perceptions of the home country. E.G. Japanese food is currently, on average, the most expensive restaurants. In the 80s when Japan had the reputation China does now (manufacturers of lots of cheap crap) it was pretty mid-range. Countries perceived as poor (China, Mexico, Thailand) are mirrored in the prices of their food. People aren't willing to pay for food they feel should be cheap due to its nation of origin. | 275 |
agn6mp | Why do so many places serve shrimp dishes like shrimp pasta with the tails still on? I have to start my meal digging through the dish taking the tails off, and I’m seeing this more and more over time, and I’m starting to think there is a reason. Are we supposed to eat the tails? | Mostly for presentation, without the tails the shrimp look tiny and curl up a bit more. The tails also are like a little handle/piece to grab when picking up the shrimp to eat when using your hands instead of a fork. Pick up shrimp by the tail, dip in sauce, bite at base of tail, then discard the shell. If you are opposed to the tails in your dishes, kindly request no tails/shells when ordering. Most kitchens would be happy to oblige (I got this request at my seafood restaurant every so often.) Edit: fine maybe not so happy, but yes to the oblige. | 275 |
w3hmic | Cooking food for people with loss of smell? Sorry, a bit of an open ended question. My wife and I both lost\* our sense of smell from covid. I don’t want to be to dramatic about it as it’s not like we’re dying or on a ventilator or anything but it’s surprisingly detrimental to our mental health to have nothing smell delicious and everything taste like… what I imagine the color beige tastes like. Like probably a lot of people we get significant joy from good food. Was wondering if anybody had any ideas for food that I could cook that would taste "right" without relying on aroma. (Normally I like balanced or even delicate flavors over something that just hits you over the head with the flavor knob turned to 11 like, say, Indian food, but I’m just so desperate for taste right now I’d be happy with a flavor sledgehammer.) Meat without the smell of seared crust is meh. Pan sauce is all aromatics so it’s just kind of a slightly acidic butter thing... without the smell of butter. Bacon without the smell is just salty fat (with an admittedly fun texture). Salmon might as well be any tasteless flaky white fish. Indian food at least tasted like something but a lot of it is the smell and we weren’t getting any of it. Pasta is alright but we can’t smell the tomatoes, the spices, or cheese if there’s cheese. I baked a fresh loaf of bread in the over the other day and when I got it out I got that blast of warm air from the oven, and... no wonderful smell, no nothing - it was actually kind of upsetting. Probably the 'best' food right now (as in reminds us the most of pre-covid taste) has been grapes, where what I'm mostly getting is sweet, a fruit flavor (I'm sure I'm missing some fruit smell but... I can't remember what that was like anymore :/), and a crisp cold liquid sensation, so I'm getting the majority of that. But, if anybody has any ideas of cooked, prepared food that is mostly flavor and not so much about the aroma, that would be great. I'm pretty pessimistic, to be honest - most of taste seems to be smell. \*By “lost” sense of smell it seems to be <100% loss. If I fry up a pan of bacon I don’t smell anything. If I put my nose in the pan I get a hint of bacon. So it’s not gone, just like 99% gone. | When I had covid I focused a lot more on the texture of food, like a cheap frozen pizza with a crispy bottom. Food with various textures at least have us something to focus on with the lack of taste. | 275 |
t1uod6 | Does adding lemon juice to homemade nut butter extend or diminish shelf life? So I know nut butter is not supposed to spoil easily due to its fat contents. Sour things also do not spoil easily. Does this combination extend shelf life or will the combination be neither acidic enough nor fat enough? | It will diminish it. Do not add anything with water content to nut butters!! The acidity (and sugar content) is irrelevant, the water in it will allow bacteria to grow, plus it may react to the oils and split resulting in a horrible texture. You do not need to add preservatives to pure nut nutter, the fat content is too high and the water content is too low for bacteria to grow. | 274 |
gnti5c | Can you freeze lemon/lime juice and preserve the taste and aroma? I was thinking it could be nice to have long storage lemon/lime juice on hand. The store bought juices seem to have been pasteurised and that takes a lot of the taste and aroma away. That does not become my Tom Collinses well. | Random fact I discovered recently: Freezing whole lemons makes the pith seem as if it has disappeared and makes the lemon a hell of a lot juicier | 273 |
1uljh9 | Is there a difference between 80% lean and 93% lean ground beef if I am just browning and draining the fat? At $2.99/lb the 80% lean comes out to $3.73 per lean pound. The 93% at $4.99/lb comes out to $5.36 per lean pound. If I am just browning and draining as much fat as possible is there any reason no to get the cheaper meat? Sorry if this is a silly question. | It's not the same. While the fat and lean content of meat is tested (in select batches) and regulated, those numbers on the package are not the only difference in the package. You have to remember that not all lean is the same. The fatty sections of a chunk of beef actually are made up of fat suspended in a matrix of collagen and other proteins That's why when you render liquid fat from what looks like pure beef fat, you still end up with a crispy deflated "shell" of proteins, or the reason why the fat cap on a rib roast doesn't completely melt away when you cook it. So ground meat with a higher fat content also has a higher concentration of collagen and other connective proteins in its lean content. This can have an effect on the final texture of a dish, even after the fat is drained. Very lean ground meat will taste a little dryer and more granular and produce thinner sauces, while fattier cuts will produce gelatin as it cooks, giving you richer, more mouth-coating end results. This is true *even if* you drain off 100% of the fat from both batches because the leftover lean is not identical. EDIT: forgot to give the actual practical advice: if this is for a long-cooked dish like chili or something like that, you should buy the cheaper higher fat beef and just drain if you're concerned about the fat. You'll end up with about the same amount of fat, but you'll have better texture because the connective tissue breaks down and adds gelatin. If you're cooking a quick dish (say, under 45 minutes of simmering), then the connective tissue might not break down sufficiently to add body, but you should still end up with slightly more tasty, less dry end results. Only buy the really lean stuff if you're making meatloaf or hamburgers or something else you can't drain and are really concerned about fat intake. | 273 |
pbnh38 | How To Quickly Dry One Chicken Breast I have a roommate with sensory issues such that she gets sick consuming any hot liquids. This unfortunately includes chicken juice. When group cooking, we've had to sacrifice juicy chicken, instead keeping it in the oven until 175-185 degrees internal. So far we've been doing this for all our chicken because it's a hassle to pull out one or two breasts while the last one keeps roasting another 10 min and trying to time all this with the sides. Possible, yes. Just annoying. Does anyone know of a simple quick way (<10 min) to overcook/dry out a single chicken breast? Would the microwave work? | Butterfly one breast for her and cook it the same amount of time as the rest. Since it's thinner it will overcook. | 273 |
pls70w | How do I tell the difference between cutting AGAINST the grain and WITH the grain? I keep watching videos and reading articles about cutting beef against the grain, and they'll always point out how "the meat fibers are going left to right" and I genuinely do not know how I can tell that as opposed to if they're going right to left. | A visual may help | 271 |
d9t1y4 | Why do Chefs geek out over spoons? A friend of mine is nuts for his Gray Kunz spoon, and I'm happy for him and all, but I seriously don't get it. | https://www.thekitchn.com/whats-the-deal-with-gray-kunz-146440 Read that. Ultimately, the spoon is a fantastic multi tasker. Forming, saucing, stirring, flipping, it's precise. More accurately, a well designed spoon is nice. I have a spoon at work no one touches, and at home, no one touches. It's like asking why a painter like a number 12 round brush made a certain way. A lot of it though is trend. "Oooo, a chef designed it and it was once hard to get, I'm a cook at Houlihan's, I need one!" You see it with other tools as well. | 271 |
q6ons7 | Made fresh Almond milk...and it spoilt within 12 hours Made my first batch of almond milk last night. Got up today morning and the milk was totally spoilt. I had stored the milk in an airtight glass bottle and got a loud soda-like **pop** when I opened the cap. Here is the recipe I followed: * Soaked 1 cup almonds for 8 hours. Washed them after * Blend them with 3:1 water with a touch of vanilla and honey * Strain milk through nut-bag * Store milk in airtight glass bottle * Refrigerate I'm not sure where I messed up. Could use some advice on the same. Thanks! | If you aren't going to pasteurize it with some method then you need to sterilize all of the equipment and containers you are going to use. A small amount of salt will help give it a longer life too. You could also soak your almonds in water you bring to a boil first for less time, which would help eliminate any bacterial contaminants. In general any almond milk you make at home is going to have a shelf life of only a few days unless you pasteurize it. | 270 |
ntas56 | Why is it tradition to serve crawfish/seafood boil on newspaper? Where did this originate? Every time I see any place serving crawfish mainly, it is served on "newspaper". In this day they have made greasy proof paper that is safe to serve food on but they still add the fake newspaper print. Curious as to where and why this came to be a common practice. Newspapers today are dirty, in the old days I am sure they left even more ink residue all over your hands, so this seems to be the worst thing to serve food on, worse than just eating directly off the table. | It's cheap and readily available, and disposable. At a boil they dump the entire pot of food onto the table and everyone just grabs from the pile. With a mess that big it's easiest to just throw everything away lmao Source: my Cajun mother | 270 |
jjlz31 | How do restaurants make large quantities of gravy? Or other jus type sauces? If I make a roast the amount of gravy Or pan sauce is pretty minimal once it’s reduced and thickened. How does a restaurant make enough to ensure they can portion it for the hoardes that may want to drown their food in it? And I guess - how can I increase the quantity of gravy I get without compromising consistency or flavour? | Ex pub chef here. Good pubs make a huge amount of stock from roasted veal bones, dump in some red wine, reduce it and then thicken with a roux. Doesn't need to be drippings, butter is perfectly fine, the main flavour is coming from a well made stock. I can always dump in drippings from the seventeen hotel pans of beef roast as they get pulled from the ovens to pump up the flavour. For the enormous catering events of 200+ that I used to run during The Before Times™, we would bring in really high quality boxed beef demi and chicken stock and then reinforce it with roasted mirepoix, whatever appropriate trim we had, bouquet garni with a shitload of thyme, a couple bottles of red wine and reduce it until nappant for our generic gravy. Shittier places buy in 1.5kg buckets of Essential Cuisine's Beef Gravy and make enough to fill a stock pot that you could stew several medium sized toddlers in because the punters wouldn't be able to tell the damn difference between the lovingly made stock one and rivers of the reconstituted goo if their lives depended on it. For a home cook I would say reinforce stock with a second round of roasted mirepoix, mushroom trim, thyme, black pepper, simmer until reduced by 1/3rd, strain and then thicken with a roux from your drippings + added butter if you don't have enough or a beurre manié. | 270 |
jo4cly | I have 12 lbs of pears and 13 very large cucumbers that I have no idea what to do with. So my wife made a couple mistakes on our recent grocery order, she thought she was buying individual pears when she was buying 3lb bags, and she also ordered 6 cucumbers from two different stores (and we had one left too). So I've got a huge pile of pears and cucumbers. I love both of these things, and I'd love to figure out a way to actually eat them before they go bad. If I don't come up with a sexier idea, I'll probably dehydrate most of the pears, because I love dried fruit. But the cucumbers are a real trick. They don't freeze well, you can't really cook them, and they don't last all that long in the fridge! So what the heck can I do with them? I've tried cucumber gaspacho, and I'm not crazy about it, strangely. I could totally make pickles, but I'm wondering if there's another idea out there. | Asian style quick pickled cucumber. you mix them with sugar and salt and they taste absolutely divine with any grilled or fried meat. You could also make cucumber juice with lemon/lime/mint if you have those lying around. Also, a cheddar pear pie. I've also had good experience sticking them into grilled cheeses. They also do really well when you just toss them in a pan with bacon, cheese, and bread squares so you get some sort of deconstructed bacon grilled cheese. | 269 |
hipfo3 | Weekly discussion: Authenticity in food In food, there are a lot of 'no true Scotsman' arguments bandied about - that your recipe, unlike mine, is impure and imperfect. No cheese with seafood, for instance, and unless the recipe is made as it was passed down by Nonna a century ago, it shouldn't exist. Then there's a different, but related stripe, about the popularization of certain foods by white popularizers - see the arguments about Rick Bayless bringing Mexican food to a broader audience. How do you approach authenticity in food? When do you adhere to it? When do you do whatever seems good? \[Remember, always, rule 1: politeness is not optional here at /r/askculinary!\] | Of course in a basic sense if the food you make is tasty then nothing else matters. This includes authenticity and anything else. So, that's my initial response. But I do think there are reasons to care about authenticity. In a lot of contexts, people have not been exposed to a wide variety of tastes. They've grown up eating the food of one culture and even when they've had food from other cultures it's actually just another kind of food from their culture, albeit with influences from another culture. "Chinese" food in America and India is a good example. American "Chinese" food and Indian "Chinese" food is not much like most food from China (aka "authentic" Chinese food). That's not to say it's bad - it's merely different - but it's definitely not as new or innovative to someone who has grown up in America or India as a lot of actual Chinese food would be. So, one reason to insist on authenticity, and on cooking Chinese food like they cook in China, is because this will expose you to new flavors, ingredients, techniques, and combinations. I think it's always good to expand your palate. Insisting on authenticity isn't the *only* way to do this - you could after all just buy a bunch of stuff you've never eaten and try making your own stuff - but it is a *huge* shortcut, since (for instance) China has already figured out tasty things to do with ya cai or doubanjiang or fermented tofu and you can cook those recipes to learn what these things taste like and what you can do with them. Another reason to worry about authenticity is bigotry. Speaking now just about America (which is where I'm from) a lot of people from non-American cultures face a lot of bigotry with respect to their authentic food. (The podcast Racist Sandwich has a lot of great discussion of this.) A child of immigrant parents who brings authentic Indian or Chinese food to school will often get taunted by the other children, ostracized, etc. Lots of Americans will refuse to eat at authentic "ethnic" restaurants because they're afraid the food will be too "spicy" or "weird" and a lot of that just stems from straight up xenophobia. This means people from these cultures are forced to "water down" their food to appeal to the dominant culture or face prejudice, and that's not fair at all. Insisting on the importance of authenticity helps combat this because it lends value to doing things the way people are inclined to do it, rather than forcing them to fit in to the restrictive tastes of many Americans. A related reason to worry about authenticity is cultural imperialism and cultural appropriation. A lot of "Indian" food in America is British Indian food, so much so that Americans who don't know anything about Indian food will sometimes get upset if they go to an Indian restaurant and they can't just get chicken tikka masala and butter chicken or things like this. So for instance a South Indian restaurant serving dal, sambhar, idlis, dosas, etc. would make some Americans upset and get pushback for not serving "real" Indian food like naan and curry. They'll get their menu explained to them by Americans who think they know what Indian food is, but who don't. In fact this gets *really* bad for Indian food in particular for some reason, because a lot of Americans are convinced there are basically two kinds of food in India: tikka masala and curry, and they'll insist that all Indian food must fit into one category or another. This means people will label almost all Indian food "curry" (a more or less meaningless word) and refuse to accept any Indian food that doesn't match whatever weird definition of curry they have in their head, and everyone has a different one because the word is meaningless anyways. (It also leads to people using "curry" in various ways to insult Indian people, since "curry" is the one word they think of when they think of India. See here. And it also leads to people putting curry powder in all their Indian food, which is ridiculous, because almost no Indian food is made with curry powder.) My favorite example is this recipe from a well-meaning American. She made an Indian-inspired chicken recipe and called it tikka masala because she had vaguely heard of the various Indian chefs suggesting that calling everything "curry" is insensitive. When commenters pointed out it had sweet fuck all to do with tikka masala, she gave up and changed the name to curry, the only other Indian-ish word for food she has ever heard. If one focuses on learning about authentic food, one will not be the sort of person who gets angry at an Indian restaurant for not serving British food, or the sort of person who thinks all Indian food is either tikka masala or curry, and so on. Finally, in the American context, the taste of the broad American public is kind of... not amenable to a lot of people's tastes. Lots of America likes everything sweet and not very spiced or spicy. So when other culture's foods become American they gain a lot of sweetness and lose a lot of spices and heat. Ditto for losing out on fermented stuff (fermented tofu is a no-go for Americans) and other funky stuff. So, insisting on authenticity lets you avoid Americanized recipes which drop some of the coolest tasting stuff. Obviously if you're not in America this is maybe not a relevant consideration. Now, of course, there's not really such a thing as "authentic" since food changes all the time. But I think there's a pretty obvious difference between kung pao chicken in an American Chinese buffet and kung pao (or, gong bao) chicken in Sichuan. And so obviously when people talk about "authentic" food they're picking up on *something*. | 269 |
cin6po | How can I cook a tomato for BLT to work around a food allergy? *To lead off, the allergy type I have is very mild and never life threatening or dangerous. I'm merely trying to avoid an annoyance here while still enjoying a food I love.* I love farm fresh tomatoes, especially right now at peak tomato season, thinly sliced and layered on some toast with crisp lettuce and bacon. But I have a fairly common condition called "Oral Allergy Syndrome" where many fresh fruits and vegetables cause a mild allergic reaction. That means that if I eat a fresh tomato I get this uncomfortable cottonmouth sensation and a scratchy itch in the back of my throat. The trick is that this allergy is only for *fresh* produce. Any cooking, even a light pasteurization, breaks down whatever it is I'm allergic to. So I can happily eat tomato sauce, ketchup, or even a hot pasta dish tossed with fresh diced tomatoes. But the straight cold slices of tomato on a BLT I simply can't do. Does anyone have a good BLT idea where the tomato gets cooked? Better yet, does anyone have ideas on a pasteurization method where the tomato is heated up long enough to break down whatever problem proteins there, but preserve the texture/flavor so the tomato could be chilled for that true BLT experience? | What about grilling them? Not a lot, just enough to take the “fresh” off it. | 268 |
ciwzgp | My parents hates spice (and subsequently flavor, I guess) what can I season a crab boil with for her? My wife and I love doing cajun style seafood boils. We use Old Bay Seasoning, Andouille Sausage, Crab, and Shrimp. However, my parents want to have one with us and my Mom and Dad cannot do any kind of spice (yeah, I know, not even Old Bay). Is there anything I can season the boil with that would add some flavor, but wouldn't add spice? Thanks in advance. | You might try a traditional court bouillon: water, salt, white wine, vegetable aromatics (mirepoix of carrot, onion, and celery), and flavored with bouquet garni and black pepper. | 268 |
hfo0od | Mirror glaze ice cream cake? It's a tradition in my family to make what we call ice cream cakes for birthdays. It's essentially a layered cake with ice cream between two cakes. Typically we used a cool whip or whipped cream "frosting" on the outside. My daughter's birthday is in a couple of weeks and she loves paint pouring and mirror glazes are like an edible version. I'd like to do a mirror glaze ice cream cake for her. What I'm wondering is if a mirror glaze would work? I was thinking of making the cake like normal (bake cakes, freeze ice cream, layer, use buttercream instead of whipped cream, freeze solid) but doing a mirror glaze on the top of it. If what I've read is correct, a mirror glaze needs to be around 90 degrees to pour correctly and it can take several hours to set. If I did the glaze and then immediately moved it to my freezer, would it be OK? I'm thinking of doing a test cake, but if it's not going to work and someone on Reddit knows that, I would like to save the wasted ice cream and cake. | Since your daughter loves to paint pour, why not freeze the cake and let her pour it herself when ready to serve? That way you don’t have to freeze the glaze unless you have leftovers. | 268 |
qwymcd | Is making chicken stock from scratch cost effective? I've saved the spines and wing ends from 2 whole chickens that I used and was just thinking about all the veggies that usually go in a stock and was just thinking - there's no way this can be cost effective given that there's no use for the veggies afterwords(?) Even the bottles of more expensive stock seem like they would cost less than making from scratch. | I keep trim from stock-worth veg that I prep for other dishes day to day. Slip into a ziplock freezer bag, and keep going until I’ve got enough bones for a decent stock. It’s not often I’ll toss in fresh veg, unless I’ve got a situation where I’m sitting on a lot of, say, carrots or green onions and they’re getting almost to the “hmmm do I want to use this?” stage. | 267 |
qyckgq | Why does jerk paste penetrate so much deeper than other marinades? I'm using Walkerswood traditional Jamaican jerk seasoning on chicken thighs. The bottle says to use it sparingly, and I've had really hot jerk before, so I put very little on, and let it do its thing overnight. I'm surprised how deeply the flavor seems to have worked its way into the meat. I've let other marinades and rubs sit overnight and their flavor only seemed to penetrate a couple millimeters, whereas the jerk seems to have gone down to the bone. Is it just an illusion due to the intensity of the flavors in jerk, or is some ingredient or combination of ingredients (scallions, scotch bonnet peppers, salt, black pepper, all spice, nutmeg, citric acid, cane sugar, thyme leaves) really working its way all the way through the meat, and if so, which one(s)? | This stuff is *super* salty - and that’s what’s penetrating the meat. The intense flavours on the surface back it up and make it seem like they’re entering the meat as well but they can’t. | 267 |
ump9hd | how can I get my tofu to be more like restaurant style I want it to be crunchier and drier | This isn’t the same but just wanted to say I always freeze my tofu now. It gives it a very spongy / meaty texture that I love | 266 |
iz9xf7 | Grew a lot of cayenne peppers in the garden this year. Is there a best way to make cayenne powder with them WITHOUT a food dehydrator? I have so many beautiful, red cayenne peppers that I’d like to turn into powder. I do not own a dehydrator and not sure if I need one, seeing as I don’t think I’d get enough use out of it. Is there another way to get them to the point where they could be ground without them going bad? | I have seen them threaded on a string and the hung up to air dry, but I have never tried this method. I have done them in a very low oven with the door cracked open a bit. They come good but are a little roasty and darker than store bought cayenne with a pleasant nutty finish. | 266 |
kstm1a | What is the functional difference between baking something in a hot oven vs. preheating with the food inside? Do any recipes call for this? (This is all concerning a conventional oven with electric elements.) I know 99% of recipes call for you to preheat the oven before cooking, but often when I don't really care (frozen food for example) I'll just throw it in the oven and turn it on at the same time. Hypothetically, I feel like this may result in a crispier outcome when doing something like reheating frozen chicken tenders, due to the coils being on for a longer amount of time and heating the outside of the food to a higher temperature than it would normally reach in an oven that's reached a somewhat stable temperature. I haven't really done any testing at all however. I figure in cooking there's always different ways to do things that aren't necessarily better or worse, just what you need for a different situation. Do any recipes call for this procedure? | There are lots of reasons, it's not just a waste of energy. Two off the top of my head: * every oven heats at a different rate, so there would be no consistency. You'd need to know what kind of oven every recipe was made on and then adjust for yours * if you don't have good airflow, some areas of the oven may be 50° F or more different than other areas. After preheating all the interior oven parts, the heat distribution will be more even | 266 |
ccxszt | Where to get whole vanilla beans? Can they be grown in Texas? Are they much better than the McCormick's you get at the supermarket? I've long been a big fan of Ina, she's my spirit animal. I've seen her video on making your own vanilla extract, and I would like to both try making my own using her method, as well as incorporate the seeds/specks into my desserts. Where on Earth can I get ”good” vanilla, like she asks? How long can it keep for? | Vanilla beans are vanilla pods which are the fruit of the mature vanilla orchid, *Vanilla planifolia*. They are a native tropical plant. Their preferred temperature range is 60-70ºF at night, 80-95ºF during the day. They require humidity and air circulation, and will not tolerate frost. You could grow them in Texas, but you will need a climate controlled setup like a greenhouse or conservatory. You could expect it to take 3+ years from starting the plant off from cuttings, to the plant producing flowers. Successfully growing the orchid does not guarantee they will produce fruit. Orchid flowers must be hand-pollinated, and unpollinated or unsuccessfully pollinated flowers will be dropped by the plant within one day. Once pollinated it takes 9-10 months for vanilla pods to be ready for harvest. Pods harvested early do not contain a sufficiently high amount of vanillin, the flavour/aroma compound. Once harvested pods are then cured to prepare them for sale and use. It is possible that someone is growing them in Texas, but factoring in the cost of production and labour, it's unlikiely that Texas-grown beans would be cheaper than imports from Madagascar or Tahiti where they are grown in their native climate. Madagascar supplies >80% of the world's vanilla. Vanilla is very expensive worldwide at the moment because of cyclone damage to the growing region in Madagascar, combined with increased global demand and market speculation. Cyclone Enawo hit Madagascar in March 2017, and vanilla orchids take 3-4 years to be ready for harvest, so you might expect the price of vanilla to drop in 2020-2021, unless other factors come into play. | 266 |
ds8i6m | Tomatoes defy me! How can I bend them to my pasta-sauce will? I have no idea what it is; I can do aglio e olio, I've had great fun with cream sauces, but for some accursed reason every single time I put tomatoes in a saucepan with intent to create a flavorful pasta sauce, I get the exact opposite. Whole, crushed, diced... basil and oregano quit without supplying flavor, garlic forgets what it came here for in the first place, and the star of the show lends a watery "meh"ness to it all. Yesterday was my final straw; in an attempt to push the envelope and beat some flavor out of my archnemesis, I subjected it to the addition of gin, following precisely a promising recipe I found. The result... was a watery, slightly boozy, flavorless mess. I'm willing to bet I'm doing numerous things wrong, and that the tomato needs more respect than I'm giving it. Your tips and suggestions would be greatly appreciated to help me overcome my adversary and finally plate up a respectable red sauce. | This is obviously a huge topic but here are a few tips. We can divide tomato sauces into the slow and the quick. Slow-cooked tomato sauces are very much their own thing, so I'll skip over them for now. I'm assuming (perhaps unsoundly) that you're trying to master a nice, quick, weeknight tomato sauce for spaghetti or whatever. Start with the tomatoes. In quick preparations, you really need to start with the best tomatoes you can get your hands on. Except the hard part is there is no best tomato. They vary a lot from packer to packer, and different people have different preferences. The long-run best approach is just to buy a bunch of different kinds from your local supermarket — restricting yourself to whole peeled tomatoes without any extra stuff in them — and try them out. But if you want a decent head start, get a can of Muir Glen San Marzano-style tomatoes. They're good, consistent and inexpensive. I keep them in my pantry. The second thing is to DRAIN your tomatoes. Pour them out of the can into a mesh strainer and just let it sit there for a while. Not like an hour, but do this first and then let the tomatoes drain while you prep the rest of your ingredients. What I do for my weeknight fresh tomato sauce is start a probably excessive amount of garlic (4-6 cloves; adjust to taste) in a cold skillet with a couple tablespoons of good olive oil and a teaspoon of water. Medium heat. The water keeps the garlic from getting too hot too fast. I just garlic-press my garlic. You can slice it, mince it or grate it depending on your palate. And when I say good olive oil, I mean it. This is the time to pull out your single-varietal stuff. I have an Arbosana oil that I like for this preparation. An Arbequina oil would be good too, fruity and grassy instead of nutty and bitter. Let the oil get hot for about two minutes. Don't let the garlic brown. Dump the drained tomatoes into the pan and hit them with a potato masher. You can tear them up with your hands if you prefer or run them through a food processor, but for me the potato masher hits the sweet spot between fast and good results. If you don't want your sauce chunky you should probably go the food-processor route. Gently stir everything together, thoroughly incorporating the garlic, oil and tomatoes. Then basically just leave them alone to gently simmer for somewhere in the range of 9 to 11 minutes … which by an amazing coincidence happens to be exactly the right amount of time to cook some spaghetti. When the pasta's ready, turn off the flame under the sauce. Add a teaspoon of salt, a quarter of a teaspoon of sugar and a good handful of freshly and coarsely chopped basil. Use tongs to move the pasta out of the cooking pot and into the skillet; the pasta will carry some starchy water over with it, plus there's no need to dirty a colander. Toss the pasta in the sauce until well coated. The sauce should be chunky, not watery. Serve alongside a hunk of parmesan, a microplane and a pepper grinder. Last pro tip: Do not under any circumstances forget to salt your pasta water. My ratio is one tablespoon of salt (Diamond Crystal kosher; adjust the amount downwards for Morton's kosher or for granulated, and don't use the good Maldon stuff here) to one quart of water. Two quarts of water is sufficient to cook a pound of dried pasta. This technique — I dare not call it a recipe — is very riffable. You can add meatballs to the sauce, you can throw some spinach into it, you can add tomato paste or anchovies, whatever. The base of flavor is fresh, bright and savory, so you can go a lot of different ways with it to keep from getting bored. | 266 |
r256qe | What's the secret "birthday cake" flavour ingredient? I am trying to make an old school tray bake with royal icing. Something like this: https://www.ohlaliving.com/retro-sprinkle-tray-bake I have made this and it's fine, but doesn't taste the same as I buy at a local dessert place. My icing just tastes like icing sugar (I did add vanilla essence), but the one from the dessert place, the icing tastes like Costco birthday cake icing (but not thick and creamy, firm and thin on the top). What is that secret ingredient that gives it a birthday cake taste? Maybe our icing sugar is just different in the UK but I just feel like I am missing something. | There is an artificial flavor called "Butter Nut" that I've also seen repackaged as "Cake Batter." It combines imitation butter, vanilla, and almond flavor in the most unnatural and delicious flavor combo. It is also radioactive yellow. | 266 |
bn61n8 | Why is cumin so hard to get out of my shaker? I practically turn the bottle upside down and hardly anything comes out. Meanwhile I do the same thing with garlic powder or onion powder and it just streams out. | Everyone in here is missing the fact that cumin seed is very oily, around 45% oil. This is why it's clumpy when ground. Sure, if it gets wet, it'll clump too. But you can toast and grind your own fresh and it'll still clump because it's oily. Granulated garlic, for instance, is not oily and is also completely dry. | 265 |
wug70y | Duxelles substitution in Beef Wellington? I want to try making a Wellington but my wife and I both really dislike mushrooms. Has anyone had success with subbing it out for a different mixture? | You could have loads of success with roasted garlic and shallot and fresh herbs (stew herbs mostly, with extra parsely) made Into a purée. I’ve done this before and it works nicely. My wife hates mushrooms. Other things I’d use - caramelized onions with brandy reduction, reduced demi, and a bit of thyme - like the start of a French onion Soup, again puréed. I’d try it with spinach, blanched and squeezed to all hell, like squeeeeeeeeeezed dry in a towel. Then I’d mix with a touch of Boursin to play off the creamed spinach thing. That could work nicely actually. Again with herbs and mince the spinach after blanching. Edit: I used the word purée loosely before. More like a minced paste type of texture. Basically about the same texture as duxelles with other ingredients. Pro chef, 20 years. | 265 |
wsfuri | Making a well and slowly incorporating flour: Why? Lots of recipes tell you to make a well in the center of the flour and slowly incorporate your water/eggs etc. What's the reason for this? Is it necessary? If you are using a kitchenAid or similar is it still necessary or can you dump everything in at once? Thanks | It’s often because there isn’t a universal formula for how much flour you need. Depending on the flour itself, how you store it, and even the weather, you may need a lot less flour than I do or than you did the day before. The well method basically makes it easy to gradually incorporate flour until you get to a point where you don’t need more Once you’ve made a recipe once or twice and can start controlling for some of the variables it isn’t necessary by any means, but it has its place still | 265 |
ka4490 | Gourmet/unusual vinegars A family member has asked me to give them gourmet/exotic vinegars for the holiday. They specifically want both gourmet AND exotic, and I am lost. The most exotic vinegar I have is champagne, and I got it from Safeway. 😂 Can anyone give me a crash course in identifying quality vinegars and what I should be mindful of when selecting them? | Chinese black vinegar. I use it to make dipping sauces. https://thewoksoflife.com/chinese-black-vinegar/ | 265 |
lp9sfi | Asking bakeries/restaurants for the recipe? I know stories of people asking bakeries or restaurants/businesses for the recipe for a specific item. Is this considered an appropriate thing to do, and if so, how does one go about doing it? I've always thought it was considered rude or at least a stupid or useless question, because I'd think that a business would never just tell a paying customer how to make their food at home. Has anyone ever successfully asked for a specific recipe? What did you do? | One of the BEST restaurant-recipe experiences I ever had was when I complimented a dish once, asked a question about it, and the chef came out — told me he didn’t have the English language skills to tell me or write it, but if I’d show up at 9am the next morning and he’d teach it to me. I did, he did, it was delightful! It never hurts to ask. I’ve had restaurants tell me no, others have had some of their most popular recipes already printed and ready to go for people who ask. | 264 |
q147t2 | In what order should I sauté these things? Making a pasta dish including: - garlic (diced) - onions (chopped) - red bell pepper (chopped) - portobello mushrooms (chopped) - cherry tomatoes (quartered) - broccoli (chopped) - Italian sausage (sliced coin sized) My cooking intuition is lacking. In what order should I throw each of these into the pan so that they’re all perfectly done at the same time? | I like to start with sausage to provide some fat for the pan, then pull it out when it's done and set aside. Cook down the onion, then add the mushrooms once the onions are translucent and cook until the water is half cooked out, then add the peppers and garlic and continue until the peppers are soft (the moisture in the pan will keep the garlic from burning and the mushrooms will finish cooking off while the peppers cook). I agree with the top comment that recommends blanching the broccoli, then add that. Add the cherry tomatoes and continue cooking until they pop, or add them right at the end if you want them whole (personally I like adding them whole and then getting them to the popping stage). Finish with starchy pasta water and a little extra virgin olive oil or butter when it's off the heat. | 264 |
mtizpw | Pizza party for 15- what do I dough? Excuse the pun, I had to- it’s the law. I have an Ooni Koda 12 and having a pizza party for 15 people. I want to set up a topping bar and allow each person to create their own pizza. The question is, what’s the best way to make the dough? Should I do four doughs for bulk, then divide each of those? Do one BIG bulk? Any recipes I should follow? I typically have been doing Neapolitan style with 00, yeast, flour, water- but thinking I should do NY style with sugar and oil and maybe AP flour? Any tips or recipe suggestions would be appreciated, thank you! | I’ve done pizza party’s like this for as many as 30 people. (It’s the most fun party since we have a wood fired oven!) I would recommend making the dough the night before (or longer for more flavor development, up to you) and just doing one type. I think it would be fine to do it just in one bulk ferment, and I would divide it into balls (by weight) and place on a baking tray in the refrigerator to store before people arrive. Definitely prep all of the toppings and divide up the sauce(s) into a couple of bowls in advance. A couple of things to consider: 1. How many “stations” are you going to set up? Two people can share toppings/sauce, but more than that can get chaotic. 2. Do you have more than one rolling pin? Even though it’s not the “right” way to do it, most people don’t have the skill to toss them, and having rolling pins makes it simpler. 3. Is there another person who’s really good at making pizzas? If you are maning the oven, someone else at least mostly knowledge should be helping guide the people preping them. (Making sure there’s enough semolina so they don’t stick etc) Gosh, now I want to make pizza! | 264 |
pt84rf | How do companies produce mayo that has such a long shelf life? So I own a small hot sauce business and I know that if I pasteurize (at 180f) at a low ph (like 4.5) before sealing, the acidic environment will ensure that no bacteria grows, without any preservatives. But I've been trying to produce a spicy mayo with a long shelf life. If I Google Hellman's mayo, or most other mayos, for that matter, I get the ingredient list below. Calcium disodium seems to be the preservative, but how can it stay food safe for 6-12 months without spoiling considering it's not an acidic environment? Is it simply the calcium disodium? What quantity should I use of which preservative if I were to produce a spicy mayo? How do I truly know it's shelf life stable and won't produce harmful bacteria? Seems I need a food scientist. BTW, I know that Sriracha uses potassium sorbate and sodium bisulfite, but I'm really trying to stay natural with my hot sauce and mayos. Seems I can't do that for mayo. Thoughts? Hellman's Ingredients List: Canola oil, water, liquid whole egg, vinegar, liquid yolk, salt, sugar, spices, concentrated lemon juice and calcium disodium edta Japanese Spicy Mayo: CANOLA OIL, WATER, RICE VINEGAR, SUGAR, CHILI PEPPER, PASTEURIZED FROZEN EGG YOLK, GLUTEN-FREE SOY SAUCE (WATER, SOYBEANS, SALT, ALCOHOL), SESAME OIL, DEHYDRATED EGG YOLK, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, SEA SALT, GARLIC POWDER, GINGER POWDER, LEMON JUICE CONCENTRATE, XANTHAN GUM, NATURAL FLAVORS, CAPSICUM (CHILI) OIL, AND LACTIC ACID, CITRIC ACID, POTASSIUM SORBATE, SODIUM BENZOATE AND CALCIUM DISODIUM EDTA AS PRESERVATIVES. | Commercial shelf stable mayo is actually acidic- it uses a combo of pasteurised ingredients, low pH and low water activity as well as precise testing and controls to ensure there is no contamination during the processing and packaging. You can't do the usual high heat canning/bottling because it will break the emulsion. "Mayonnaise, salad dressings, ketchups and comparable products are preserved by a combination of low pH (adjusted by acetic and citric acid), low aw (mainly depending on the relative levels of oil, water and salt in the formulation), and – sometimes – preservatives such as sorbic and benzoic acids. The target pH value depends on the level of other inhibitory factors such as aw water activity] and the presence of preservatives, but is generally about 4.0. In contrast to ketchups, emulsion-type products cannot be pasteurized after mixing. When designing the formulation of the latter products, one must take into account the partition coefficient of the preservative agents between the water and the oil phase."- from [Food Preservation Techniques You might get more detailed/expert advice from r/foodscience. | 264 |
yqojd5 | Stainless steel pans - can't seem to get eggs not to stick I've had stainless steel pans for about a year now and I love them! The only problem I have is that no matter what I do, eggs always are SUCH a bitch to get off the pan. Of course I always use butter or oil, and I give the pan time to heat up before I put in oil and before I put the eggs in. Maybe the problem is that I like to cool eggs more low and slow so the pan doesn't have time to unexpand (or however that works)? | One quick way to know if is pan and oil is hot enough if the eggs sizzle IMMEDIATELY. I use stainless every day my I do omelettes, scrambled, sunny side up non-stick. Waffle house does like a billion egg dishes a year on stainless. After like two seconds you can then adjust your heat and you're golden. It's easy. And then you can get rid of all the non-stick in the kitchen. Don't listen to the people that tell you it can't be done. | 264 |
ypu4ml | Recipe calls for red wine I'm making a pot roast and the recipe calls for red wine, but as I'm not much of a wine guy I don't know what kind to go with. I want something more subtle tasting so it doesn't overpower the flavor of the roast. Suggestions? | I use a wine called rex goliath free-range red. It's ridiculously cheap, like $4 per bottle. It doesn't turn everything a weird shade of purple. And it gives a nice wine flavor without overpowering everything or making it taste like strawberries. Or if you have a costco around, they have a portugese red blend that's like five bucks and is probably the best wine in that price range you'll ever find. I use it for cooking pot roast all the time. | 263 |
xul2s5 | Substituting vinegar for citrus: would you keep the quantities the same? Is lemon juice similar in acidity to apple cider vinegar, or do vinegars vary too much in their acidity to standardize this substitution? For clarity, when I say “citrus”, I’m mainly referring to lemon and lime juice, as I know regular old oranges and grapefruit aren’t particularly tart. | In terms of Ph, lemon juice and vinegar are pretty similar, however, that doesn't mean they are perceived the same on the palate. Vinegar is a fermented product and mostly acetic acid. It hits the palate in a completely different way. Commercially produced vinegar also doesn't have a lot of additional flavor. I'm talking about the stuff in the gallon jug from the grocery store, not the $12 bottle of balsamic finishing vinegar. By comparison, lemon juice and citrus is is a natural fruit juice, and mostly citric and ascorbic acid. Different acids hit the palate differently. Think about how the acid from a green apple (malic) is different from citrus or vinegar. Another consideration is, if the citrus is juiced in a way that expresses a lot of oil from the rind, like with a press, there is a lot of additional flavor added to the juice. Lime juice specifically can have a lot of vanilla flavors. This is the main caution I would give for substituting one for another. Verjus is probably the closest bridge between the two, but it's not as readily accessible and usually overpriced. Would you substitute lime juice in a guacamole for cider vinegar? Why or why not? Would you put lemon juice on french fries as a substitute for malt vinegar? | 263 |
cv90zx | Restaurant Owners: How Long After You Opened Did it Take for You to Get Some Serious Time-Off? I know this is pretty complex, and quite different for every owner. When you take into account the volume, the culinary level, the staffing and so on, some owners never get a real break. Were you able to take, say, a week off during your first year? Maybe a couple of weeks off? How long until you got a really significant vacation? | We would close our small restaurant for a week every year. Our regulars would start asking a couple of months before the date ‘ where are you going this year?’ We had a few haters that would bitch-but fuck em. | 263 |
qux93a | How is Korean BBQ grill any different than just using a dry hot pan on a stovetop? Specifically this kind of Korean BBQ grill (image attached) I just came back from a Korean BBQ all you can eat experience and the grills they used were more like this style, where there was a flame under this stainless steel "grill": https://imgur.com/a/Pk7XwMs Considering that the flame is directly under the middle/center part of the grill, it seems like the meat cooks due to contact with the stainless steel metal rather than, say, from the direct heat of the flame. I could see how the holes around the perimeter of the grill could be considered more of a grilling experience. But if I were to cook my food on the central/middle part of the grill at the Korean BBQ restaurant, isn't this very similar to just using a dry hot stainless steel pan at home? | One of the big issues with Korean BBQ is the marinade. A lot of liquid comes out while cooking. The holes lets the marinade drip off so the meat isn't boiling in a pool of marinade. Note how the cooking surface is kinda domed to facilitate that. The other thing is if the marinade drips directly on the flames you'll get a huge amount of smoke. It's already pretty smoky as is. I always bring a sacrificial outer layer of clothes when going to a Korean BBQ. | 263 |
oy3uwo | Does the amount of time meat spends in your fridge before cooking affect how long leftovers will stay fresh after cooking? So let’s say one guy buys some chicken breast, cooks it right away and then puts the leftover cooked meat in the fridge to use later but another guy lets the exact same meat sit in his fridge for 3 days until the sell by date and cooks it the same exact way. Will there be any difference in freshness/taste of the leftover chicken? Will the second guy’s chicken go bad perceptibly earlier because it sat in the fridge longer pre-cooking? | My understanding is that it will affect the quality of the final product but not how long it will “last” if cooked to a safe temperature. | 262 |
jirgda | is air frying just convection? i used to work at williams sonoma so it was easy to tell what people were into in regards to food and cooking trends. one of the ones that never really fell off before i left was air frying. when you work there you also pick up a bunch of product knowledge. i learned that air frying is pretty much a fan blowing hot air around. but isn’t that just convection? working at ws has made me very wary of gimmicks and fancy relabels for old tricks. is air frying one of them? this has been bothering me for years. | A good air fryer moves more air than a typical convection oven, leading to faster heat transfer. They often use racks or baskets, so air flow goes through the food instead of just over the top and under the tray. Liquids can drip off too. Sure, I know you could use a convection oven with a cooking rack/baking sheet combo, but it's more likely to burn. With my air fryer, liquids and crumbs drop under the basket where it's relatively cool. Yeah, they're gimmicky, but they fit a niche and are less expensive than most other convection options. I really like mine and use it quite often to make some delicious, typically crispy food. | 261 |
qvzbz6 | Why do foods like soup or chili have to be below 40 degrees when they are still in the pot when stored? Preface: i threw out an entire pot of chili because i put it in the fridge at night and the next morning it was only 44 degrees and if there's even the slightest possibility of someone getting sick from my cooking, i toss it. But I got the better part of 12 hours on this dish and it pained me to toss it. (Serious eats, chile con carne, paging j. Kenji lopez-alt) So i was wondering, WHY tho? WHY is it that if you have the vessel in which something was cooked, reaching a rolling boil at times, and simmering the rest of the time, then cooled rapidly in an ice and salt bath, does it necessitate tossing the contents? I understand if it was served, or even transferred to other vessels that had not been heated. But i don't get the cross contamination and spoilage potential of it being the same pot it was cooked in. | Personally, I am never this strict in a home setting. Cool to room temp, refrigerate overnight. In 20 years never had an issue. Professional setting is another thing. | 259 |
zx57l8 | When deep frying foods that float in oil, why isn’t it standard to put something over them to fully submerge the food? was watching skmeone make donuts and they said to flip half way through, wouldn’t it be easier to have like a cage or something that would fully submerge the donut for the same effect? this post isn’t specifically about donuts, just what made me think of it and i can’t think of any other fried foods rn thanks! | Frying is sort of a balance between cooking slow enough that the inside of the thing gets done, and fast and hot enough to get whatever texture and color you want on the outside. It’s not about cooking as fast as possible. Sometimes it is appropriate to forcefully submerge frying food. I do it to test how far along the inside has cooked because the more water still left inside the bigger and more vigorous the bubbling will be. But one obvious downside I’ve noticed in using this technique is that the oil gets dirtier faster. The more forcefully steam leaves the food the more likely it is to bring the food solids and liquids with it. This can lead to cloudier oil, and if you happen to force too much liquid into the oil you also get spattering and popping which can cause hot oil to get ejected from the pot and burn any exposed skin it lands on or generally make a mess of your cooking area. | 257 |
r235be | I do not have a meat thermometer and need to know the time to cook a spatchcocked 17 pound turkey. The oven is at 350 should I increase the temperature | 350's too low for a spatchcocked turkey. the whole point is all that glorious skin crisping up and it all cooking evenly. definitely go 450. no meat thermometer is rough though. i'd second the guess for 1.5 hours. but better to have it overcooked than give any guests gastro problems. instant read probe thermometers are like 15 dollars. buy yourself one for christmas. for the future. 😂 | 256 |
zmut8u | using beer in recipes i’m a recovering alcoholic and i’m 3 years sober so far, i sometimes see recipes that require beer as an ingredient and was wondering if there’s a good replacement that doesn’t come in the form of non alcoholic beer or anything like that, i’d really prefer to avoid it for obvious reasons lol. thanks everyone :) | It depends what the beer’s purpose in the recipe is really. If you’re looking at something like beer batter then the purpose is the carbonation so you could use carbonated water to fit the bill. If it’s to be used for a braise or the base of the sauce it’s probably there for flavour and depth so I would just just a good stock or even water if there are plenty of other flavourful ingredients. The other way thing it does is to tenderise meat. There a few non-alcoholic things you can use to do this. Pineapple is a good one though does have a very different profile to most beers. I’ve heard baking soda can be used but admittedly I’ve never tried it myself. Cider is a little easier as I find apple juice works as a very decent alternative (just don’t get one that’s too sweet). In short there’s loads of alternatives but the thing to start with is to work out why it’s there in the first place. Obviously non will match the flavour of the beer but in most cases you’ll still end up with something tasty. Hope this helps! | 256 |
sz6pjl | Are these "Fresh" Kaffir Lime Leaves Good? I just ordered some kaffir lime leaves off of etsy and some of them look bright dark green, and others look brown. Are they all good? https://imgur.com/a/JFaAZQQ | The generally accepted name of this ingredient is "makrut lime leaves." The older name has unpleasant racist connotations. No blame attaches to this observation. It is easy to be unaware of this. Let us not devolve into arguments about the name of this ingredient and instead provide helpful advice. | 256 |
mc3ouf | Cabbage and bacon turned out fishy I made grilled salmon with potatoes and a side of cabbage and bacon yesterday and my partner complained of it tasting fishy and thought the salmon was bad - but upon further investigation the weird “fishy” taste was coming from the cabbage. All I did was fry off pancetta until it went crispy Then I fried garlic and banana shallots, added sliced Savoy cabbage and a bit of vegetable stock, braised for 10-12 minutes, then added a handful of chopped spinach, cooked until the spinach wilted, seasoned with salt and pepper then served. The veg stock I used was marigold veg bouillon and I didn’t add any other spices or oil other than the pancetta, and everything was fresh from the supermarket that day. | Trimethylamine (TMA) is the compound responsible for the 'fishy smell'. Fish have high concentrations of the precursor, trimethylamine oxide (TMAO), and they release an enzyme upon cell death that converts it into TMA. Many vegetables, including cabbage, also contain high concentrations of TMAO which in the presence of a catalyst (such as the enzymes from your salmon) and heat (cooking) will convert into TMA and produce a mind-boggling fishy smell. It's a very good idea to separate your fish from the rest of your ingredients for this reason. Some leafy vegetables, including cabbage and spinach, can produce TMA on their own under alkaline conditions. source >Fishy off‐flavor in foods is associated with trimethylamine (TMA), which is frequently found in fish and seafood. In this study, TMA was identified for the first time in some leafy vegetables, such as spinach, cabbage, and lettuce, at alkaline pH. The presence of TMA in leafy vegetables under certain circumstances such as high pH and temperature may affect the sensory properties of foods containing these vegetables. Should you ever tire of transmuting vegetables into fish in the future, consider lowering the pH level when cooking them (add some lemon juice). edit: I would like to point out in the linked source that they only needed lower the pH level to 7 (neutral) in order to completely eliminate the formation of TMA in spinach, cabbage and lettuce; there's entirely no need to make your veggies taste sour. | 255 |
uizfue | once my friends mom made us Pho, she dropped this super thinly cut raw beef directly into our bowls, and the hot broth cooked it immediately. I've never seen meat cooked like this before, it was so good and perfectly tender. what's that type of beef/cut called? I didn't even realize beef could be cooked that way, but it was so thin that it didn't need to be cooked over a stove top. I simply never seen this done before, it was also my first time eating pho lol. after his mom dropped the raw meat into our bowls, I was confused, and quietly asked him "is this usually served with raw beef?" and that's when he explained to me that heat of the broth cooks it. I look down to see the beef cook before my eyes. Damn it was so good, what is this magical beef called? | Use lean meat and cut it paper thin. Easiest way is to freeze it and cut it on a deli slicer (correct word?). The machine you cut cured meats with. I have one at home and they are super handy and money saving. | 255 |
n4f0pl | How do restaurants/ diners make omelettes that don’t smell eggy? Whenever I try to make an omelette , there’s a strong smell of eggs. I have been able to reduce the smell somewhat by using lots of butter and not overcooking the egg but I’ve never been able to get rid of the smell. By the time I finish making and eating the egg, the experience is just un-appetizing The omelette in diners / restaurants never smell. What can I do so that the eggs don’t have the eggy smell ? | Ex breakfast cook. We used clarified butter exclusively. Control of heat is also important. Do you push the eggs with a spatula, exposing the pan for uncooked egg to fill in (tilting the pan to facilitate)? When do you pull from the heat? Eggs are a dense and will carry residual heat - they will continue to cook after being removed from heat. Is the interior of the omelette somewhat hard or is it closer to custard? | 255 |
toozva | I am trying to make a frittata without an overcooked bottom. I can’t stand the taste of what are essentially burnt eggs at the bottom of a frittata, so I wanted to ask which technique would yield the most untouched bottom. Should I be baking it in the oven, or frying it on a very low heat for a longer time period? | I like putting thin sliced (on a mandolin) potatoes on the bottom. I coat them in oil and season them with salt and pepper. | 255 |
t3869s | Recipe says, 'stir with a wooden spoon'. Why use a wooden spoon as opposed to other spoons? Isn't a spoon a spoon? | I know for candy making, sugar is very temperature sensitive and any abrupt changes can shock it into crystalizing, leading to grainy caramel or fudge. Even raising/lowering the burner too quickly can cause it to happen. Metal utensils are often cold and dissipate heat, so it's *better* to use a wooden spoon since it's not so temperature sensitive. Then you're not sticking a cold utensil into the candy. | 254 |
hq05vu | Key Lime Pie turned out bitter Hi all, Last night I made my first key lime pie, following Allison Roman’s recipe from her book Dining In. Overall it was mostly delicious, except for one thing: the filling had the most bitter aftertaste which made the whole thing inedible! I deviated from the recipe in one key place: instead of using one cupful of juice from regular limes (per the recipe) I instead used one cupful of juice from Key Limes (you know, since that’s the name of the pie?) I was so excited to find key limes in the store that I thought it made perfect sense to use them! But does anyone know if that could be the reason the filling was so bitter? Are key limes bitter? I’ve never used them or bought them before this. I really should have been tasting as I went along, but could this have been avoided by using less juice from the key limes? Thanks in advance! | If you used lime zest you might have also included the white part of the lime peel. The white part of lemon/lime is bitter and should not be included In baking. | 253 |
otteez | Why do people rest their meat on a rack? I see this when people are either dry brining meat, or resting meat after cooking. Wouldn’t using a rack cause the moisture in the meat to drip away, instead of being reabsorbed into the meat? Wouldn’t that make the meat dryer and less flavorful compared to resting it on a plate? | My guess would be to avoid ruining the crust on a seared meat - if you cook a steak then leave it to rest on a plate (not a rack), some juices/moisture will pool underneath and the "crust" on the bottom of the steak will get a bit soggy. | 251 |
clk25w | Culinary School I'm about to enter my junior year, and I'm starting to seriously consider applying to the CIA. I'm going to try to get a job at a local restaurant soon to see the difference between commercial and home kitchens. Other than that what are some recommendations, warnings, or other helpful info y'all have? | Do not apply until you have worked at least 2 years in the industry | 250 |
u915g7 | If my brand new oven is taking 30 minutes to preheat to 400, something is wrong, right? New house came with a brand new whirlpool oven. It takes 30 minutes to get to 400. I use the “rapid preheat option” as well. Feel like “if I have to ask…I know the answer”. I should be able to call some sort of tech out here for free, since it’s so new…though I wouldn’t be surprised if I have to bitch or go up the chain. | Test with a basic oven thermometer to be sure, then call out a tech. Not sure how it works for appliance manufacturers honoring warranty on an appliance where you are not the original purchaser, but that certainly seems like a manufacturing defect that would be covered. Unlikely - but is it gas and if so is there a shutoff valve on the supply line that's not open all the way? | 250 |
tcrxvz | What does "medium-high" actually mean? How does everything not burn? So, to me, medium-high means between medium and high. On all ovens I've had, stove tops go to 9 place, so I put mine at 7. If I've got a steak, I can cook it in that pan for maybe 8 minutes before it starts burning. This has been true for every single stove I've ever had, and I've had 5. When I watch cooking videos, some of these people are cooking on medium high for things that would DEFINITELY burn on my stoves. Was watching Chef John's Tikka Masala video and he is searing chicken that's coated with curry powder, and he's doing it over high heat. Curry seasoning will 100% burn every time, no matter what, if I let my pan get to high heat before adding my chicken, even accounting for loss in temperature from adding the chicken. I don't understand. Does medium-high/high mean something else? No matter the skill level, more than half the things I see people cook at this temperature would burn in under 30 seconds if I put it on my stove. Again, not a faulty stove, I've had several in the past. | If you have a gas stove, pay attention to the actual size of the flame and not the numbers on the knob. Those are, for the most part, completely useless. | 249 |
ez5yta | I have seen Indian chefs use a heavy bottom aluminum pot for cooking curries etc. Why is such a pot preferred? I am talking about this kind of an utensil mainly. Whenever I see any YouTube video about an Indian curry this kind of an utensil is almost always seen. I am a cooking noob but very interested to know about this kind of cooking pots in Indian cuisine. | These pots are known as a "Patil". The curved bottom helps spread the heat evenly so when you're cooking with oil and ghee, the heat doesn't burn the aromatics and smoke the oil. Ghee heats up very quickly and will burn anything inside it when you use it with a flat, thin bottom pan unless you are very careful. When we fry our garlic, ginger and onion pastes, they tend to spray a little in the intense heat of the oil because of the water content. The narrow top helps to reduce how much comes out of the top when you add your pastes in. It also reduces how much of the broth you lose when you uncover the lid, as less steam will escape from the very bottom as opposed to a traditional saucepan. The fanned lid gives you somewhere to grab the pot from if you need to move it, as the body of the pot retains heat for a long time. People use a variant of metal pliers to grab onto the lip and lift it away from the flame. The lids are also different from a traditional western pot lid; the handle on top is wide with a lip to allow for lifting with the pliers or an oven cloth. The bottom surface is also flatter, so condensation drips back into the pot easier instead of pooling in the corners. These pots are still in widespread use around South Asia, even in modern homes. There are ones that are absolutely gigantic, up to a meter wide, that are used to cook bulk dishes for parties and events. We generally use aluminium ones as they are cheaper and easier to find in the city, but people do invest into nice copper sets. The most traditional are clay pots but people outside of villages don't tend to use them as they are so fragile, especially when trying to wash one in a modern sink. When you see these pots in use, the bottom half will be pitch black from the heat blacking the surface. It washes off with elbow grease but over time it becomes semi permanent. We use them in tandem with woks, the pots are generally used for rice and thin broth curries, while the woks are used for deep frying and some thick broth curries that require stir frying. The shape was incredibly useful on a "matir chula", or a traditional earthen stove which has a hole in the bottom to add kindling with a wide open space to rest the bottom of the pan directly into the flame. The wide, heavy surface distributed the heat evenly while protecting the food from being scorched. Modern stoves used in South Asia tend to be wider than their western counterparts to allow a wide flame to heat up the pot evenly on the bottom. These are simply pots that are designed to be the most useful when cooking curries, with versatility to be used in many other things, such as rice and lentil soups, which we eat every day with curry. As I live in Europe now I don't have access to these anymore. I make do with a cast iron wok as the heat distributes well and the pot gets hot enough to sear the meat in the spices quite well. A good alternative would be a dutch oven. Anything with a very thick bottom that heats up slowly and evenly will result in well cooked curries with no burnt or undercooked and underseared portions, as frying the spices and your proteins in the oil and spice mixture is an essential part of bringing out the flavour of the curries and spices without overloading it in ingredients. | 248 |
fztplj | Need help with this Soy Sauce Hey guys, I was in Japan last year and it totally blew my mind how good the food is. While tasting all different kinds of dishes I also did a bit of shopping and for me it was fascinating how many kinds of soy sauce there are. So I found this little soy sauce shop in Kyoto and while the owner didn't speak any English he just had my try all the soy sauces. In the end I bought a few of them and one is absolutely incredible it has kind of a fishy flavor and is just really rich and umami. Unfortunately I am running low now and I have no idea how to get my hand on a similar one as the label on the sauce is Japanese. That's why try my luck here, maybe someone can tell me what kind of soy sauce I bought. Pictures: https://imgur.com/a/mJ5YTPO Thanks! | This product seems to come from a shop called 参匠 醤油屋 (Sansho shoyu-ya) that doesn't have any online sales on their website. It does have a Facebook page if you wanted to try and contact them. The type of soy sauce is あなご飯炊き込み醤油 (anago meshi takikomi shoyu) meaning soy sauce for eel served over rice. If you wanted to try to recreate it or at least find something with similar ingredients I'll translate the ingredient list. Soy sauce (honjozo), sugar, salt, conger eel extract, kombu extract, flavorings (amino acid, etc.), alcohol, caramel coloring, sweeteners (licorice, stevia), thickening agent (xanthan) (some wheat may be present from raw materials.) I hope you can find something similar. Japan does a good job at keeping some of its culinary treasures secret sometimes. | 248 |
qc2prd | How should I store my cilantro so that it doesn’t go bad so quick? I went to a farmers market for my produce and I got this huge bouquet of cilantro for less than $2. I was so thrilled but now I’m wondering how do I store it? The bouquet of cilantro is definitely too tall to stand in a glass of water in my fridge. I’m wondering if I should freeze some or if that’s not a good idea? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated! | My solution is usually to just keep making and eating more tacos until it's all gone. | 248 |
ve5rf6 | Does poking a potato prior to baking it really do anything? I’ve heard that poking it will help it cook faster, allows steam to escape, and prevents shriveling. Is any of that true? | It keeps you from having to scrape off caked on potato guts from the inside of your 425 degree oven is all. | 247 |
yzao8o | Does My Thanksgiving Hor D'oeuvres Make Sense? Seeking Advice I'm making this recipe up completely on my own, and I need both a sanity check and recommedications. I want to make small tarts in muffin tins using shredded chicken thighs. * Brown chicken thighs in a pan with butter, adding garlic, rosemary, and thyme, etc. -- typical Thanksgiving flavors. Shred chicken once cooked. * Form store-bought puff pastry into muffin tins (and par-bake if necessary?). * Spread a layer of caramelized onions into the bottom. * Add a layer of the shredded chicken. * Add a layer of cheese sauce (butter, flour, milk, and a neutral white cheese). * Place two very thin slices of habanero peppers across the top, top along with a tiny amount of a funky cheese, and bake. This is just something I came up with, and I have no idea if it would actually work. I'm looking for some traditional Thanksgiving flavors, but with a tiny bit of kick in spice and funk, since it's a starter. | All scans really well. Only caveat is with the cheese sauce. I'd recommend making it quite thick and use it sparingly, so it doesn't make your pastry go too soggy. A thin sauce can often underwhelm, when baked. A blue cheese can be a great match with chicken, especially thigh meat, so consider that maybe for the final dollop of cheesy loveliness. Roquefort, St Agur, Stilton or something from closer to home, perhaps. Good luck and hope everyone enjoys your efforts! | 247 |
u72esk | Is it ok to let pizza dough rise then fridge overnight? Sorry if this is too specific. I've made a pizza dough using this recipe. It says to let the dough rise for 3-4 hours or up to 24 hours in the fridge .I misread and did both; I let it sit for 3 hours, then put it in the fridge. I'm now at work and will only be back tonight, when it's been about 24 hours in the fridge. Wondering how this will affect the finished dough. Am I over-proofing by doing this? | It'll be fine, probably better to be honest. I usually let mine ferment in the fridge for at least a few days | 247 |
nzvklq | Why do I need to use an entire pot of boiling water and how do I know when I can skip it. Seems like there are a lot of things that say they require a full pot of boiling water but would be fine in a shallow pan. I've tried making pasta in a shallow pan and you it boils a lot faster, uses less salt and the water you end up with at the end contains more starch which is better for thickening sauces. I've tried the same thing with edamame, boil it in a frying pan and I haven't noticed any ill effects yet. So how can I tell when the times are that I'm actually going to need a full pot of boiling water? Thank you | When you add food to boiling water, it brings down the water's temperature. The temperature of a shallow pan of boiling water is going to be brought down much much more than the temperature of a large pot of boiling water because the shallow pan of water contains less total energy (I'm sure there's a more specific thermodynamic term for this. I tried googling, but I'm kinda out of my element). I believe that is part of why pasta packaging seems to suggest much more water than it seems is necessary. If you have enough water, the water will come back to a boil quickly after adding pasta. With less, it can take several minutes to come back to a boil. How long it takes to come back to a boil can vary depending on the power of the stove, the material of the pan or pot, whether the lid is on the pot, etc. Using a lot of water evens the playing field and allows for more consistent result given all of the potential variables. Edit: People have replied with comments and this article below refuting my claim about how long something would take to come back to a boil. Today I learned. | 246 |
dhbtnx | I’m being taken to a super fancy brunch place that “imports their croissants from Paris.” How could importing croissants from Paris be better than making fresh ones? | Its not. In France, butter fat has to be above 82%. In america its 80% so theres not that big of a difference. Now a days you can buy butter from companies like Strauss who use 85% butter fat. So its just a logistical problem meaning they might not have the facilities to make croissants on a scale that size. Source: sous chef at a popular brunch spot that made everything in house in northern California | 246 |
wbrc6h | What to do with massive amount of grapes? So, full background. In 2004 my dad tried to get a grapevine going in the backyard. It grew a bit, but it didn't produce anything. Gave up on it, left that area mostly alone past building a hydroponic system for tomatoes. To skip over a lot of shenanigans, it took off all of a sudden once it started getting more water, and completely buried the entire area of the yard in vines despite my best attempts to manage it. Up into the oleanders, up into the orange and nectarine trees, it murdered my tangerine tree I'd planted... It was like the Evil Dead but for winos. Now I have something like... if I had to guess by eyeballing it, probably 40lb of green seedless grapes. I have no idea what to do with them. Jam/jelly is the obvious step, but that's an unfeasible amount of jelly. Help. | Grapes used to be so special that grape scissors were a thing. Dehydrate some, eat a lot and give plenty away. If they are eating grapes you will probably find they are too sweet for a delicious jam, though you could try juicing some. Then cut the vine back brutally. We recently bought a house with a decorative grape vine and an eating grape vine. They are both triffids and making a serious attempt at world domination. | 245 |
xk5y7o | What kind of pan is this, and what is it for? I have tried googling different keywords but I just can't find it. I'm guessing it's to toast bread? Those aren't holes just sort of depressions or divets, they just look like holes because they are dirty. Pan in question. | http://locicompany.com/dimple_design_ss_cookware It's just a frying pan with dimples to help make it less sticky. Dimples hold the oil in place and some air and supposedly make it stick a little less. But as you can see, it's much harder to clean. So... I would say it doesn't actually work. | 245 |
zcfp18 | Can I put a dutch oven at the bottom of the oven? My dutch oven is really heavy and when i put it on a rack it bends, I am about to braise some short ribs and it will have to cook there in the dutch oven for 4 hours, I'm afraid it will either break or bend on an oven rack. I was wondering if i could just put it on the bottom of the oven, no sheet tray and no oven rack | Try to put your rack upside down. Than it will bend less. Not like this \\__/ But like this /—-\ | 244 |
ay74mc | How does white food coloring work? This is kind of dumb, but how exactly does white food coloring work? Is there something like titanium dioxide in it? What do you do with it? Does it really make buttercream made with butter bright white? If so, what are its limitations as to how dark something can be before it won’t work? | Most likely, you're talking about titanium dioxide. It's a broad spectrum, isotropic scatter. This means that light hits each molecule and scatters off at a random angle. This results in lightening the colour. It is the same optics that make clouds (water vapour) appear white. I use it in my buttercream all the time and it definitely helps remove the yellow colour. It's limited by how much you can add before you upset the composition of your icing. (I did my PhD in tissue optics.) FYI, titanium dioxide is also in the good sunscreens. It scatters the light away to protect your skin. Don't worry, in normal quantities, it's perfectly edible. | 244 |
94eelf | How do you make onion rings where the onion doesn't pull out of the fried batter like a tape dispenser when you eat it? Seems to happen most often with larger onion rings. Take a bite and you're pulling the onion out of the batter like a drawstring out of your pj pants. It's annoying. Thanks for the help! | I don't do batter. I soak the rings, sliced thin, in a mix of buttermilk and enough hot sauce to make it pale pink. Maybe 20 min. Then toss in a 3:1 mix of AP flour and corn starch with some Tony Chacheries cajun spice. Drop those straight into 325 degree peanut oil and take out golden brown. For serving, I recommend eating them piping hot over the sink with hot grease running down your arm | 243 |
wz7mtg | What do you call the experience of dining at a private table in the kitchen of a restaurant ? What do you call the experience of dining at a private table in the kitchen of a restaurant | I do that most days. Ok so its an oil bucket and im eating out of a bowl with whatever to hand but im doing it. | 243 |
tylc3l | Do you actually crank the heat to high when cooking a steak on a cast iron? When I started learning how to cook, nearly every recipe for cooking a steak had me turn the dial up the high to get a good sear. "The fire alarm may go off, but that's the price you pay to get a good sear" they insist. Yet, in my experience (putting reverse-sear and sous-vide aside), most steaks can be easily cooked on medium to medium-high, a 3-4 minutes per side, and you have a great sear, and you don't have to worry about the fire alarm going off and heaps of smoke clouding your apartment. I'm think the "sear on high" instruction should only be reserved for extremely thin cuts and cuts that have already been cooked to temp. Yet I see it recommended in nearly all steak recipes - it being seen as a sort of badge of honor to set your fire alarm off and stink up your apartment. What do you think? | I'm with you, but mainly because "high" is just too non-specific. I want it blazing hot, but on my stove that's more like medium high to maybe even medium. High I reserve for quickly getting water to boil. Personally, I like a good rare to medium rare steak, well seared, but I also want it heated through. Throwing it lava level heat is going to burn the outside before the inside is heated up. As you said, I can get a good sear at a lower temp, and allow the inside of the steak to take on some heat Now - if I have time to sous vide it, then hell yeah. Sous vide it to a perfect internal temp, and then sear it at the temperature of the sun! | 243 |
5htpya | What are some good or unusual tweaks you use on rather common recipes? Today I found out about Orange mashed potatoes which is basically just adding an orange juice reduction (and if you like some sour cream) to your normal recipe and garnishing it with some orange zest. I like it because it's something i wouldn't have thought about. Do you know of similar tweaks to things you prepare sometimes?! | I usually add about 4X the amount of garlic listed in a recipe. | 242 |
qii13l | Can I use already-whipped heavy cream to thicken a sauce? I'm making a sauce that calls for ¼ cup of heavy cream to be added towards the end, to thicken it. I already whipped up all the heavy whipping cream in the house to put towards dessert, but I haven't sweetened the cream yet - can I use the unsweetened-but-already-whipped heavy cream to thicken my sauce, or does whipping the cream somehow render it useless for thickening purposes? Obviously I'd prefer not to have to make a store run whilst in the middle of cooking, but I'd hate to ruin the sauce even more; it's kind of the star of the show. In case it matters for context, the full menu is brined/broiled game hens and mashed potatoes with black garlic/caramelized shallot/uncured bacon/dry-roasted mushroom smother sauce, and roasted broccoli & cauliflower tossed with a mix of garlic butter and preserved lemon puree. For dessert, Mayan Apocolyse pudding: fudgy black cocoa pudding with notes of cayenne, orange, and espresso, topped with whipped cream and smoked paprika. | If you heat whipped cream it will "melt" back into regular heavy cream, so you should be perfectly fine. | 242 |
v4hr2b | Have I been unknowingly spreading food poisoning? So I work in as the fryer cook in a restaurant and our fryers are very random when it comes to fried chicken strips and sandwiches. Sometimes the chicken will be cooked perfectly but other times it will come out completely raw in the middle or burnt, so we have slice open a few strips in each batch to check if they are cooked. Well we use the same knife for checking all strips, so if I checked a strip and it was raw in the middle would the knife have salmonella or other germs on it afterwards? If so then I might have been spreading food poisoning without knowing. TLDR: I constantly cut open chicken strips to check if they are cooked while working in a restaurant, if the strip was raw in the middle would the knife have salmonella or other germs on it that could pass onto the next strip I cut? (Sorry if this offends rule 1) | Maybe stick a wired thermometer into that fryer so you can see what temp it's at. And fix the damn thing already. It's like you're an Uber driver with an engine with a dead cylinder. | 241 |
vpedju | Can I grate beefsteak tomatoes instead of chopping them for marinara sauce? I’m planning on making homemade marinara sauce and I’m wondering if I can grate my tomatoes instead of chop them so I can make the sauce quicker. | Throw it in a blender you are gonna make a mess with a grater or blanch them and crush them with your hands/a spoon / potato masher or chop it you have many excellent tools for this but a grater is not the tool for this job | 240 |
eyj8qa | Need help recreating scrambled eggs I had in Japan I had the best scrambled eggs and toast in Japan recently. We sat and talked with the coffee shop owner and he explained they are topped with pepper and thyme. But the consistency, texture, color and flavor of the eggs were out of this world. They were rich and creamy and had a depth of flavor I’ve never experienced. I wanted to see if it’s just down to a quality of eggs I probably can’t get in the states or if perhaps there’s an ingredient or technique I could work in to the recipe. Here’s a picture https://i.imgur.com/2n4E3zT.jpg it’s the only food pic I snapped the entire trip through Japan and it was of scrambled eggs because they were that amazing I didn’t want to forget the experience. Any help is much appreciated! | Get yourself some liquid dashi and use it sparingly. That's likely the depth of flavor you're describing. If they were slightly sweet as well then some mirin was probably added. As for the rich and creamy part, that comes down to temperature and technique, more French-style than American-style, i.e. more stirring at lower heat. | 239 |
p86h66 | When making chicken nuggets at home, can I mix the dark meat and the light meat together? I am trying to gauge if I can be kind of lazy, or I should care about separating them when making everything. I enjoy being lazy. | I'd be more worried about how you'll turn them into dinosaur shapes in order to make them fun and increase their edibleness. | 239 |
eev9pj | Simple question for those that work in the food industry: how is it that I can order mashed potatoes from a favorite half fancy restaurant and they are always perfectly prepared ready to go? If I make them at home I quickly get them on my guests plate before they dry out or sit too long. A favorite local restaurant of mine has them ready to go and delicious at any hour of open business. | When you feel you’ve added too much butter add some more. | 239 |
wjmd5e | Do I really only use 1 tsp of spices? So many recipes instruct you to use 1 tsp of each spice in the dish. I just can’t even taste this small of an amount. If I make spaghetti and I add such a small amount of oregano, I can’t taste it and I have no idea it’s even there. Is there some sort of method I can use for determining how much of a spice to add? I just want to get into spices but I’m confused. | Taste it. If it needs more to be good to you, add it. You’re not cooking for the audience or creators of a recipe, you are cooking for you. Don’t add a teaspoon of cayenne or you will regret it. | 239 |
zexf0j | Does anyone know what “cebiche sauce” is? I had bought this sushi from a Peruvian restaurant called an Acebichado Roll topped with cebiche sauce. Does anyone by any chance know what a cebiche sauce is? (I am also trying to recreate it)Below are the ingredients. “Shrimp tempura, crab mix, cucumber and avocado wrapped with halibut and topped with cebiche sauce” | Peruvian here. Ceviche is NOT acevichado Sauce. Acevichado is a type of ceviche flavored sauce used on sushi, that has an almost mayo like consistency, it's not traditional ceviche at all. Restaurants use different mixes, i can tell you mine Mayo Soy sauce Lemon (green small one not yellow) Hon Dashi (japanese fish stock powdered)good luck | 237 |
intis7 | Should I tip a private chef coming to make a group meal? For a person's birthday present I gave them a private dinner at their house (COVID present). I know the chef and he lost his job due to the pandemic. I reached out to him and asked if he can do a multi-course tasting menu at a private home for a small group of people and we agreed on price and menu. This guy is going to bring one other chef and they will cook together. I will pay the chef directly and we are not going through a company to hire him. Should I tip him on top of the agreed upon price, or since he is getting the whole amount would the tip be included or unnecessary? I've never done this before so have no idea! | I did a few events as a private chef and tips were very much appreciated. Edit: I guess you can think of it this way. The chef is hired to cook excellent food. But being flexible, sociable, charming, and engaging was them going above and beyond. You are obligated to pay for the agreed upon price. But if you feel they provided more than just great food, then you should tip. | 237 |
hdxs3r | Do you cut off the hard bit on garlic cloves? I always do but I never see famous chefs doing it | Yeah, makes peeling the clove much easier. | 237 |
bip1c9 | How do I clean a granite mortar and pestle? I have a granite mortar and pestle that's quite nice but i don't use it much as it is not obvious how to clean it. if seems like the porous surface would never really get clean or dry if I just washed it in the sink and I don't want to contaminate one mix of spices/etc with others. Am I just being paranoid? I've sort of isolated it to just grinding peppery type things. | Geologist here. Assuming this is actual granite (you'd be amazed how many things are advertised to consumers as granite that aren't), it's going to have incredibly low porosity. You really don't have to worry about anything soaking into it. Give it a good scrub with soapy water and it'll be fine. It's been in the ground, and before being carved into a mortar and pestle has been soaked by groundwater - on and off - for millions of years. | 236 |
yccs2p | Can I just add sugar to a pie dough recipe to make it work for a dessert pie? (It’s originally for a chicken pot pie) I finally found a pie crust recipe that was super easy for me to make as a novice/home cook, but it’s for a savory dough, not sweet. Currently it asks for: 1/2 cup sour cream 1 egg lightly beaten 2 1/2 cups flour 1 1/2 tsp salt 12 Tb butter cut into 12 pieces If I wanted to use it for a pumpkin, apple or pecan pie, can I just add some sugar or powdered sugar? And if so, what amount would you suggest? I have tried a few other dessert pie crust recipes, but nothing is as easy for me as this one that I stumbled onto for making dinner one night. | The same base is just fine. On the other hand, I do enjoy making adjustments to the recipe for the specific dish being made. A bit of vanilla gives a nice flavor, and makes delicious pie crust cookies. | 235 |
xlc9gk | Advice on Making a lot of Risotto for 10+ people? Learned to make mushroom Risotto with Arborio rice and my family now wants me to make it for them. Which im super excited to do! The issue is some friends are coming over so mow the Head count is at like 12. How do I make enough for everyone ? Someone told me its not a good idea to put a lot of the Arborio rice in a pan because it causes issues with the texture. Do I use two pots ? Start earlier and keep it in the oven ? Any and all Advice for making this would be really helpful. So excited to cook this weekend ! TLDR: Advice on Risotto for 12 people ? | You can par-cook in batches….do it just until it’s a few rounds of liquid shy of being done, get it out of the pan and on a sheet tray to cool. This can be done the day before and put in the fridge. Then when it’s time to fire it all up you lubricate your pan a little bit, heat your stock, and finish all of it with the last couple rounds of liquid. | 235 |
pogn13 | How can restaurants use excessive amounts of salt and not have their food taste overly salty? Just curious because every time I’ve over-salted a dish it’s quite noticeable and not very appetizing. Is it just a balancing act with excessive fat and sugar as well? | There is this really great cookbook i'm reading called "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat" by Samin Nosrat. There is a whole chapter on salt but basically salt changes the flavour but ALSO the way it cooks. Here is a great video by her that explains one part of the process. Also not all salts are the same. If you add 1tbsp of table salt, its double the weight of the same tbsp of Maldon salt. So many salts, so much variety. | 234 |
hsmu4d | How do restaurants peel soft (or hard) boiled eggs so they always come out perfect? I really like making ajitama tamago (the seasoned egg that many people top ramen soup with). Since I figured out the marinate it's really upped my at home ramen game. The problem is I'm \*really\* bad at peeling the soft boiled eggs. It's also random how well I peel. Some look great, others look like they've gone through a war. I boil refrigerated eggs for 7 minutes, then immediately shock in an ice bath and let them cool almost completely before peeling. I've tried the spoon trick of getting under the skin, I've tried pricking the air pocket before boiling, and peeling under water. How do restaurants have always smooth perfectly peeled eggs? | I have a friend who worked in a restaurant where one specialty was a whole soft boiled egg rolled in spices. She was the one who peeled 150 eggs every day. She said they bought the eggs from a farm, but stored them for a week and a half because very fresh eggs are too hard to peel. Also, they steamed the eggs instead of boiling them -- I find that makes a difference in my own home, too. Ice bath, same as what you do. She peeled the eggs under running water. Even with all this, she always had some that weren't nice enough to serve. | 234 |
uzvmnv | How to easily peel and cut mangos for freezing? Have about 50lbs of mangos from my trees. Hoping for some ideas on how to quickly process them into chunks for freezing and use later. One can only eat so many fresh mangos a day. | If you’re interested in giving some away, ampleharvest.org is an organization that will pair up gardeners with excess produce with food pantries in need of it. | 234 |
crm4h2 | KitchenAid or Cuisinart mixer? Hi all I’m finally taking the plunge and investing in a mixer. I’m in Buenos Aires and the only two robust options seem to be KitchenAid and Cuisinart. Are they equally good? Will they both last as long? I will be using it a lot (I seem to have got more into baking since moving here). It’s a big investment so I’m trying to get as much advise as possible. Thanks! | Kitchen aid for mixer, Cuisinart for food processor. | 233 |
ghl0ta | What’s the best way to reheat Chinese takeout like crispy sweet and sour pork? | Oven. Give it about five to ten minutes at 450. Sometimes, I'll even turn the oven to 500. You can regain some of the original texture by doing it this way. | 233 |
k5u8g4 | Is there a culinary use for fish oil? I have a lot of fish oil collected after roasting fish Just curious if there is a good way to use this. Surely people throughout history have used this oil? | Good question. Historically it was probably burned in a lamp, fed to animals, or used to bait traps. I can think of two things to try, a roux for a fish stew or chowder. A ceasar salad dressing. | 233 |
whyxlh | Kitchen gadget to slice up chicken I eat a lot of chicken and meal prep it into ziploc bags (Costco breast chicken). I usually clean it and cut it up into small 1 inch by 1inch chunks but I start getting blisters by the end. Is there a machine/gadget that can do this for me? | "Is there a better 'gadget' than scissors to cube up a large amount of chicken?" Yes it's called a sharp knife | 233 |
ai3qlx | How do you deal with ingredients you cannot eat as a chef? How do you deal with ingredients that you cannot eat when cooking for others. For example: I absolutely despise coriander/cilantro and cannot eat even a small amount of it without the taste lingering for ages. But when get cook for others some recipes ask for it. So how do you deal with those ingredients while still maintaining the quality of the dish and taste testing? | I worked with a Muslim guy. He would taste the pork dishes for seasoning. When I questioned him on it he told me god would understand, it was necessary for the success of his family. Coolest answer ever. | 232 |
fz0um3 | The cooking order of onions, garlic and vegetables. Can someone please clear this up? Im confused?! Im trying to learn how to cook for maximum caramelization and flavour without simultaneously burning my veggies. I usually saute onions for 4-5 minutes on medium high heat, add garlic, cook for 30 seconds, and add my other vegetables (usually its a mirepoix so Im adding celery and carrot) for about 5 minutes or more and then I might add sauce or mince or w.e. else. Im just wondering if this is the recommended order for flavour? Some people say you should only cook garlic for 30 seconds on top of other vegetables before adding sauce, but I dont think my garlic is burning. \- Culinary Clutz | It depends what you're making. There is no single 'best method' if that's what you're after. You need to consider what result you're hoping to achieve and the best method to get there. Flavour is not a single attribute that you have more or less of, it is a whole range of different attributes, and by treating the same ingredients in different ways you can create a range of different flavours. A mirepoix doesn't contain garlic, and you cook all three vegetables slowly together, without browning, because you're not looking for a caramelised flavour, you are looking for the first layer of layered flavours. There is (obviously) nothing wrong with caramelising, but it's not the right thing for every recipe. What you describe sounds more like a stir-fry, and if that's the case, and you want all elements to have the same degree of doneness, then you need to add them in reverse order of cooking time so that they all finish at the same time. If your garlic is chopped much smaller than the other ingredients then it will take less time and should be added last. I suggest looking at good (non-blogger) recipes for whatever you're trying to make, and see what they suggest. | 232 |
mu2b8c | Why braising pork belly results in fall-apart goodness, but sous-videing does not? I braised my pork belly in Shaoxing wine, soy sauce and some aromatics for roughly 4 hours (simmering, so I think the temp was around 200F) and it turned out very tender. Next, I experimented with putting pork belly (and only pork belly) into a sous vide bag for 10 hours at 170F, but it was still pretty tough. What gives? Is the difference attributable to the acid in the wine, or the slightly greater temperature? 170F is higher than the 160F required for collagen to break down... I'm not sure what is making the difference, here. | Acid in the wine might make a small difference in the outermost layer of meat, but the biggest difference here is temperature. Collagen breakdown isn't a binary yes/no above 160°F, it accelerates with higher temperature. (And even occurs below 160, there's just a big spike in the rate around there.) You could go hotter if you want more tender, but in theory just cooking longer at 170 should give a better result. Maybe try 16 hours next time. | 231 |
gnkzdb | My sourdough starter smells like BO. There’s a vague hint of that yeast smell, but the BO fragrance is dominating. It smelled great yesterday but today is almost unbearable. Notes: -Second feeding occurred about 10 minutes ago -King Arthur Flour, unbleached, 11.7% protein content -Warm Tap water -Stored in glass bowl with rubber top placed on top but not sealed -Left in microwave (my apartment is a little cold right now) | By second feeding, I'm assuming you mean that you started it yesterday? If that's the case it's going to smell pretty funky for about a week. Yeast cultures are generally quite self regulating and hard to really screw up, it just takes some time to get to an equilibrium with the bacteria present. Sourdough is very hard to screw up, you either need to go an extended period without feeding, use vessels contaminated with nasty stuff (doesn't need to be thoroughly sanitized), or add stuff other than flour and water. Sourdough can be quite daunting but the hard part is creating the bread is the hard part not the starter. Take a step back, be patient, and relax. | 230 |
kn3drw | How did you learn to plate food? Are there any good books, guides, or principles that helped you learn to have awesome plating? | Per my french master chef overlords, the general guidelines: Colour, contrast, construction, composition. No brown on brown, white on white. Use elements that are different colours but don't use more than three or four. Use colours that are complimentary. 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. 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. 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 look better. Work from the ground up. Pureé on the bottom, protein on top, veg to the side, garnish strategically. Elements should touch, not be placed separately about the plate. 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 in their face. Then follow chefs on IG who have distinctive styles, in particular maxboon from Blue by Alain Ducasse who is doing amazing work, and hang out over in r/culinaryplating. | 230 |
zjzwu0 | what is the purpose of coating the blueberries in a cornstarch/lemon juice slurry in this blueberry cake recipe? > toss blueberries with 1/2 Tbsp corn starch and 1 tsp lemon juice, stirring until well combined and no dry white cornstarch remains. https://natashaskitchen.com/blueberry-lemon-cake/ i’ve made this cake twice now and it comes out great, just trying to learn about what the cornstarch lemon juice on the blueberries achieves | Like /u/Herbisretired stated, the thought process is that the cornstarch mix will help keep the blueberries from sinking to the bottom of the batter while it cooks. However, Stella Parks did a (rather quick and dirty) test and found that the flour did nothing. She suggests, like /u/Garconavecunreve said, to just put some plain batter in first. Me personally, I don't mind if some sink to the bottom so I don't bother with either method. | 230 |
ps4rxj | Does it matter *when* I salt my scrambled eggs? Does adding salt during cooking alter the eggs in any measurable way? i.e. affect the texture / mouthfeel. I think the deeper question here is how salt affects proteins and fats during cooking, and how to know when to apply salt optimally. I've seen with beef patties that Kenji Alt Lopez made that it toughened the meat, I'm wondering if the same idea applies here? | Salt makes eggs thicken and coagulate at a lower cooking temperature and actually produces a more tender texture. Both salt and acids get the proteins together sooner, but they don’t let them get as close together- which is why you get a more tender result by adding before cooking rather than after. I doth quote the great Harold McGee for the science: "The key to this seeming paradox is the negative electrical charge that most of the egg proteins carry, and that tends to keep them at a distance from each other. Acids — cream of tartar, lemon juice, or the juice of any fruit or vegetable — lower the pH of the egg, and thus diminish the proteins’ mutually repelling negative charge. Similarly, salt dissolves into positively and negatively charged ions that cluster around the charged portions of the proteins and effectively neutralize them. In both cases, the proteins no longer repel each other as strongly, and therefore approach each other and bond together earlier in the cooking and unfolding process, when they’re still mostly balled up and can’t intertwine and bond with each other as tightly. In addition, coagulation of the yolk proteins and of some albumen proteins depends on sulfur chemistry that is suppressed in acidic conditions. So eggs end up more tender when salted, and especially when acidified." | 230 |
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