Latest Cooking Answers

Infrared thermometer for oven temperatures

IR Thermometers read surface temperatures. Can they accurately read the interior temperature of my oven through the glass panel? Or will it be reading the surfa

Why does my bread keep 'blowing out'?

Instead of swelling as a whole loaf, my loaf will often expand in the oven off to the side or the bottom - looking 'blown out', a big tear. This results in a l

Why do some recipes recommend a short rest after mixing but before kneading the bread?

Some recipes I see for bread dough recommend a short rest between the mixing (just enough to make the ingredients homogeneous) and kneading stage - often 10 to

How can I know when my yogurt is ready (in a generic, basic, non-us yogurt maker)?

I've bought this yogurt maker (the only one I've been ever able to find in the country I'm living), and it only has a simple on/off button. Somewhere in the ma

Why should we not store onions and potatoes together?

I have heard that onions and potatoes shouldn't be stored together. Why will this make the potatoes spoil faster?

Can I make my own malt?

The malt that I found in the store is barley malt. I have a bread recipe that calls for rye malt. I have whole rye grain. What do I have to do to make rye mal

Why stretch and fold vs traditional kneading of bread dough?

Many recent recipes I'm seeing for bread, this one for example, are using a strech and fold technique rather than a traditional knead. Whats the advantage here

What is the name (in Chinese) of the utensil that is used to prick lots of tiny holes in pork skin to make it very crispy?

I have seen people mentioning this and I've heard it's available in Chinatown in NY or in Hong Kong but I can't find it listed anywhere for sale online. I thin

How can I make whole grains stick to the top of bread?

I want to bake bread or bagels that have whole grains like poppy seeds, cumin, caraway, etc. stuck to the top. I have tried just pressing them to the top but t

Why add malt to bread?

Several bread recipes that I have been looking at recently call for rye malt. I know that malt is sweet but what other effect will malt have on a bread recipe?

Should I preheat my bread baking containers?

I have read that artisan breads turn out better when they are baked in a container that can trap the steam. Examples I have read are baking bread in a dutch ove

What is the difference between quick bread and cake?

Quick breads, like banana or zucchini breads, seem to be assembled in an identical method and with similar ingredients as cake. Many recipes have comparable qua

How do I get Nooks and Crannies in my English muffins?

I have tried making English muffins a few times. Each time the flavor was good but I didn't end up with the open interior texture that I expect from storebought

Fat in chicken skin after boiling

After boiling a chicken for soup and straining with a fat separator, how much fat is left in the chicken? Does it depend on how long I boil the chicken for?

Which other spices besides cloves will react with plastic?

I am reading that cloves can cloud the plastic in my grinder at Cooking for engineers Does this happen with any other spices?

Why does bread with filling separate and how do I prevent it?

Sometimes when I make sausage kolaches or cinnamon rolls the bread layers pull away from the sausage or the filling and leave an open space inside. The separati

What are the differences between slow cooking and poaching a chicken soup and how does slow cooking/poaching soup affect salt absorbtion?

1.What is the difference between poaching and slow cooking? I believe in poaching you are meant to remove chicken 20 minutes after boiling so the meat doesn't

Does a mechanical meat tenderiser denature chicken so that it will absorb more salt water?

Does a mechanical meat tenderiser denature chicken to the point it will absorb more salt water in a soup? If I use a £20-£40 meat tenderiser on chi

Recipe generator for randomized meal planning [closed]

has anyone of you ever tried a randomized week long meal planner for dieting ? If you have read the 4 hour body delegating the cycle to an al

Boiled chicken: coloured parts of the meat?

When I try to make chicken soup I usually find parts of the meat don't seemed to be cooked properly: red, purple, or brown bits which I think should be white. S

Does tiramisu firm up in the fridge?

I am making my first tiramisu, using this recipe from Gourmet (with high ratings on Epicurious). My mascarpone mixture looks terribly soft to me. As per recip

How can I speed up banana ripening?

I need to make banana bread tomorrow, and the bananas I recently purchased with this in mind to not appear to be ripening fast enough. Is there anyway to speed

Making buckwheat crepes buckwheatier

I want to make "real" crêpes au sarrasin. I tried twice, but the result does not have as strong buckwheat taste as the ones I tasted in France. I am at lo

What to do with crumbled muffins?

I made some muffins that apparently didn't have enough liquid to stick together (perhaps substituting Greek yogurt for sour cream was not such a good idea, as t

Over-stirring muffin mixtures

In muffin recipes, the instructions often say to stir the mixture till "just combined". Why does over-stirring the muffin mixture result in tough muffins? An

What to add to the batter of the cake to avoid hardening when the gluten formation can't be avoided?

So, over mixing batter forms gluten, which in turn hardens the cake. Fine. The problem is that I don't want lumps in the cakes, and the above statement prevent

What are examples of spoiled food that is part of a culture's cuisine? [closed]

Today my brother-in-law told me that he's going to Iceland for vacation. He also told me that one of the delicacies in Iceland is aged/rotten

Is it safe to defrost cooked meat and eat it (without reheating)

Say for example I had some marinated cooked chicken that I put in the freezer. Would it be safe to defrost this cooked chicken and put it in a sandwich without

Which oils are considered flavorless?

The cake recipe is calling for a vegetable oil. I have refined sunflower oil, and refined soyabean oil. Do they qualify for flavourless oils? I haven't noticed

How do I keep the paddle of a bread machine from damaging the bread upon removal?

I love my bread machine. However when the bread is done baking, removing it from the machine breaks the bread where the paddle is. I know the paddle is embedded