Latest Cooking Answers

How to prevent a cookie from becoming spongy like a cake?

I was following the recipe here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/best-chocolate-chip-cookies/ and the cookies came out a little like cake rather than cookies. It'

Why do people recommend cream of tartar when whipping egg whites to the exclusion of all other acids?

Virtually every single egg white recipe will say add some cream of tartar to egg whites to help them whip better because the cream of tartar will lower the pH a

To freeze or not to freeze?

I made a lasagna today (Thursday) that will be served on Sunday evening. What will yield a fresher-tasting result: refrigerating or freezing? I know that lasagn

Preventing chocolate from burning, when its used as the crust of a New York style cheesecake

I am using this flour-less chocolate cake recipe as the crust of a New York style cheesecake. Cake recipe The full recipe is in the youtube description, if you

Steaks look light brown aren't charing

I'm cooking steaks in a stainless steel pan. It's never getting hot enough to cook steaks and char them it's charring in a few places then starts to basically b

Where does the chlorine taste in yogurt come from?

My parents used to make yogurt some years ago. When they tried to make some last month, it turned out very firm and smooth in appearence, but tasted like chlori

Effects of reducing sugar in cookies

If I want to reduce the amount of sugar (to reduce sweetness) in a cookie recipe, how would that affect the end result (mainly with respect to texture) and what

What's the best material for a durable muffin pan

I make two or three dozen muffins a day for various customers. I don't like to use disposable cups, so I grease the pan each time. No matter what I do, after a

Is it normal for ginger paste to spit violently in oil?

One of my favourite recipes calls for a 3cm piece of ginger peeled and grated. The recipe asks that I heat some vegetable oil in a hot wok, then fry the ginger

What turned my garlic purple?

I commonly use a technique when caramelizing onions, in which I add the sliced onions to a pan with salt, oil, and water. The water softens the onions and helps

Kirby Cucumber Storage

I love the Kirby Cucumbers (I've seen them called "Pickling" or "Salad" cukes in the midwest) available over the Summer, but they tend to get slimy in the frid

How accurate is the window pane test? (breadmaking)

I recently bought Michael Ruhlman's Ratio and started trying out baking. I knead my bread for about 10 to 15 minutes, but the window pane test (pulling a chunk

Breaking down fruit with sugar and water for cookies

I just made some amazing date cookies. They were made swiss-roll style; you make the date-mixture, then spread it on a rolled-out layer of dough, and roll it; t

Why is my Bunn overflowing?

We recently upgraded at the office from an old and cold Mr. Coffee 12-cup at work to an old but hot Bunn coffee maker. It is a 10-cup BX-B, and appears to have

Are nectarine seeds edible?

Eating a nectarine this afternoon, I found the pit was cracked open. Curious, I broke it apart and found an almond-like seed (or nut?) inside. I remember hear

What is the name of the Chinese dish from the movie "Girl with a Pearl Earring"?

In the movie "Girl with a Pearl Earring" there's a Chinese piece of tableware, presented on the image below (center of the image, blurred): What's the name o

How can I prevent my ice cream bucket from drying out?

I live in New Mexico which is a dry climate. During the winter I store my ice cream bucket in the garage. While ice cream buckets that are not in use are prone

Separating Chlorophyll didn't work

I tried to extract chlorophyll from spinach by blending up some spinach and water and straining out the green juice, then heating the juice. I've done it befor

How to clean scrambled eggs from a pan?

As an example, I made eggs using Gordon Ramsay's Perfect Scrambled Eggs, at the end the pan ends up having a layer of eggs attached to the bottom and sides that

How can I get unsweetened gluten-free chocolate brownies to hold together?

I would like to make a chocolate brownie which has no added sweetener. It would be great if it were gluten-free as well, but that is less important. I tried a

Large quantities of sushi rice in a rice cooker?

I'm looking to cook large quantities of sushi rice (short grained) in a rice cooker. Any tips? I have a commercial cooker but it only has a cook and warm settin

How do I balance the bitterness of raddichio in soup?

I made a big pot of soup and put a little of nearly everything I had in my refrigerator in it: radicchio fresh green beans beets potato carrots garlic sca

Large mesh cheesecloth? Straining pulp (not juice) from plums for jam

Each year I have huge quantities of small cherry plums (roughly 2x cherry size). The problem is the pits. Is there a large mesh cheesecloth available I could t

Cored tomatoes measured before or after coring?

If a recipe calls for 3 pounds of tomatoes, cored, should you start with three pounds of tomatoes and core them, or should you have 3 pounds after coring? I wou

Why is it that white fish do not have as strong of a "fishy" taste as other fish?

As a rule, my wife does not like the taste of fish, or pretty much anything that once made its home in the water. However, she's decided to give fish another sh

Is there a general algorithm for calculating the amount of time to roast meat?

Often, when you buy meat from the store, it comes with guidance on how long the meat needs to be roasted, presumably calculated as a function of its weight. Is

gooseberry "turnover" filling very thick

We got a lot of gooseberries from the garden, so I decided to make some gooseberry turnovers. I found a simple recipe online: puree the berries, add bread-crumb

How do I substitute skim milk for dry milk in a muffin recipe?

My muffin recipe calls for 1 1/3 cups of nonfat dry milk. Other than the 4 eggs, there is no other liquid. How much skim milk would I substitute for the dry mil

Do I need to grease, grease-proof paper?

This feels like a very silly question, but I'm about to bake some american style cookies, and I wanted to know if I had to grease the grease-proof paper first,

How to imitate commercial fried chicken?

I'm trying to develop my own "secret" fried chicken recipe, something that is similar to Popeye's or Church's. I'm a LONG ways from getting there. Here's what I