Latest Cooking Answers

Where to store my propane torch?

Yesterday, I began using a propane torch (which I won in a raffle; Yay!) for browning the tops of foods. My quandary is: where do I store the torch? The instruc

Vegetable stock for a vegan gravy

I am vegan. I want to make a vegan gravy sauce but I want to make my own vegetable broth without too much salt. I don't want to use a ready to use vegetable st

Saved-for-later then reheated potato mixture sparks and catches fire in microwave

I have a bird who gets medicine twice a day. I hide it in a mashed potato fruit mixture. I make enough that the potato mixture lasts several days and add the

Re-processing pickles

I'm all set to make pickles (intending to hot-water can them for shelf-stable pickles) and I realize I don't have any more jars, so I'm making the brine and put

Why does my caramel sauce fail?

Every now and then I make caramel sauce for this recipe by caramelizing sugar, but sometimes it either: Hardens Burns Doesn't have that nice caramel colour Wha

Crystallization of sugar solution, and oddly crunchy candy with fudge-like texture after eating

I've been trying to recreate the results from: http://cookingsciencetradition.blogspot.com/2010/12/crystallization-of-sugar.html to very little success. My pr

Why is lettuce rarely cooked?

Most, if not all, of the lettuce I've seen has been uncooked, usually as a salad, wrap, or garnish. I don't recall ever seeing it being heated, even though visu

What should I look for in a crepe pan?

Amazon link Remarkable to find them all together like this, but these are the options I am considering. Hard-Anodized Aluminum Non-Stick (Teflon) Blue Stee

Can I store fish sauce at room temperature, and how do I know when it's gone bad?

For a long time, I believed this advice: Don't refrigerate your fish sauce. Whatever can happen to this brew has already happened; it's not going to go ba

What is Bosnian black honey?

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, I bought some black honey that someone was selling on the roadside in unlabeled jars. It was the most delicious honey I've ever had.

Hot Sauce: margarine versus butter

http://www.topsecretrecipes.com/Pizza-Hut-WingStreet-Traditional-Chicken-Wings-Copycat-Recipe.html has a copycat recipe for Pizza Hut's hot sauce (you can't see

How can I store wonton wrappers in the freezer?

I have found that authentic frozen egg roll wrappers from an Asian food store work well for canneloni and ravioli. Just thaw, fill, and roll. You can cut them t

Why is it advised to freeze meat before eating as opposed to eating it fresh?

I am not sure, is it right to wrong "It is not good to eat meat just after killing, it should be stored and deep freezed for at least 24 hours". But I had heard

How to make XXL Watermelon Jell-O Shots without falling apart?

I was trying to make XXL Watermelon Jell-O Shots but the Jell-O was not firm enough and fell apart. Should I use more Jell-O and less water next time? The recip

How can I make 'Santon sauce'

My local Chinese restaurant (Happy Chef on King St, Sydney for anyone who's interested) does a very simple dish of a half crispy skin chicken, served with rice

Can you candy salt?

Bear with me... I'm working on a pretty amazing ice cream. It's Dulce de Leche, made the kind of scary traditional way of boiling cans of sweetened condensed m

What can be used to thicken chili other than masa harina?

We like to make our own chili and it seems like masa harina is pretty traditionally used as a thickening agent. However, I don't particularly like the flavor it

How do I cook brain to achieve a firmer texture?

Most of the time we fry brain and eat it. But due to its semi-solid state, it doesn't seem good. Also Wikipedia says: Consuming the brain and other nerve t

Is raw coconut safe to eat?

I recently came across this study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC546945/?page=1 and I am worried about potential salmonella infection in raw co

Why does the sour taste in yogurt increase with time?

If we let yogurt sit for more days, the yogurt becomes more and more sour. Why does that happen?

Breed of chicken

My question has to deal with breed of chicken not really cooking, but my friends insist that those rotisserie chicken you often find sold at costco are overcook

What is the origin of fish sauce in asia?

wondering about the history/origins of fish sauce, specifically in Asia. I haven't found anything after Googling a bit.. My friend claims that fish sauce was i

Flavors in Fresca

I was trying to reproduce the flavors in Fresca without very much success. Supposedly it is a grapefruit-flavored drink, but in all honesty it doesn't taste lik

How do you coat perfectly round truffles with melted chocolate?

How do you coat perfectly round truffles with melted chocolate. Preferably with the least amount of mess. Normally, I just dip the truffle into a bowl of melted

Do long-cooked pasta and brown rice lose more minerals than short-cooked types?

There are many different types of brown rice and whole grain paste that one can buy. Some need to be cooked for 25 minutes while others only need to be cooked f

Why use citric acid and sodium hexametaphosphate in cheese sauce?

I was watching a YouTube video from ChefSteps on how to make cheese sauce. They used sodium citrate and sodium hexametaphosphate. What are the reasons for inclu

Is there a table showing the shelf life of basic food at room temperature?

Probably a table showing the shelf life at room temperature for food like bread, peanut butter, butter, sausage, ham, chicken nuggets, fish filet, etc

What is the Chinese celery and cabbage appetizer called and how is it made?

My favorite Chinese restaurant for 30 years closed a few months ago. Back many years ago they had an appetizer that they served when you were seated that was ex

How does velveting work?

The Chinese technique of velveting works. It creates a lusciously tender bit of meat, and I'm a complete advocate of making the small additional effort. If you'

How can I rescue an undercooked pastry cream?

Yesterday I attempted to make pastry cream (my goal was to use it as a filling for creme puffs). After taking it off of the heat and letting it cool to room tem