Latest Cooking Answers

Why is a pressure canner needed when canning?

I keep reading the same tip, when it comes to preserves, which essentially is: Botulism spores can survive 100°C and require hotter than boiling water temp

How do I know if food left at room temperature is still safe to eat?

If I left food out of the refrigerator for some period of time, is it still safe? If I left it out too long, can I salvage it by cooking it mo

Chicken parmesan high carb

I looked at well-known restaurant nutrition guides and noted that their chicken Parmesan dishes always seem to be high in carbohydrates and sugar. On par with r

What's a good way to prepare vegan corn on the cob without too much of a price difference?

The cheapest is to just forgo using better, but are there a simple substitutes to butter/margarine? Or is there an alternative way to prepare ears of corn witho

What is the most effective method to prevent a soggy shortcrust quiche base?

I have seen two methods to counter this. One is the traditional way of pricking the base with a fork, then blind baking at 200C with weights etc. for 10 minutes

Paper towel gets completely dark after I wipe my Dutch oven [duplicate]

I bought Lodge cast iron dutch oven a few weeks ago. I didn't season it right away since I kept it in a dry closet. Last week seasoned it with

Is there any taste/texture difference between refined vegetable oils at temperatues above melting point

I am making vegan cheese and it calls for a lot of refined coconut oil. I am wondering If I were to substitute out half the refined coconut oil for equal parts

Red vs green jalapenos for canning

I'm planning to can some salsa tomorrow and have a recipe picked out (Roasted Tomato-Lime Salsa, from ATK). The one catch is that it calls for red jalapenos, b

Can you eat acorns picked from the street?

The streets and parks where I live in New York City are littered with acorns. Can I pick them up and cook them? Is it safe? Are they any good? (Taste-wise, nu

What exactly is apple cider?

What exactly is apple cider? I've been using Apple Bandit Cider for some recipes in which I needed to reduce the cider. However the Apple Bandit Cider is like

canned green beans safe to eat!

I canned green beans using the pressure canning method. My son said when he tried the beans they were still crisp. Could they be bad? He ate some of them with n

Can I make skim milk from whole pasteurize homogenized milk/yogurt?

I'm trying to turn whole milk/yogurt into skimmed/no fat milk/yogurt. I don't live in US and no fat dairy products are 4-5 times expensive also hard to find in

Should I trust my Instant Pot or my ThermPro digital thermometer for temperature?

I cook sous vide in my Instant Pot Ultra (which lets you set a precise temperature), but when I check the water temperature with my digital thermometer, it is a

How to tell doneness of a boiled egg besides time

I live at 7000 feet, so when I want to make a soft-boiled egg, I either undershoot the boiling time when I follow times online, or over shoot it into hard boile

Can you pop microwave popcorn on a stove?

I move quite a bit and suddenly I found myself with microwave popcorn but without any microwave. I'd like to pop them anyway. I've seen in movies how people po

Can ganache with butter be frozen, thawed and reused?

I have made a batch of ganache with butter in it. The recipe was supposed to be for chocolates, but I want to now use it on top of a cake. Can I freeze it, then

Why do tomatoes react with sourdough starter?

I sometimes make sourdough and have found by accident that by adding fresh tomatoes to the dough, it seems to swell substantially more during proving, or more q

What is "White Moist Sugar"?

Looking online at a copy of Mrs Beetons Book of Household management and I came across a recipe that called for "White Moist Sugar". https://en.wikisource.org

Dry caramel 'curdles' when adding hot heavy cream

I was making some caramel sauce today. A simple recipe: 200g sugar (I used demerara), 500g cream (35% fat). I dry caramelized the sugar under medium-low heat, s

Help on understanding frosting

A couple of disclaimers: I know there are a number of websites already devoted to this; I needed to ask for clarification because the info out there does not h

Lumps in pancake batter

It seems pretty well understood that you shouldn't stir pancake batter until there are no lumps, cause that will create a tough batter. I'm curious as to what "

Seasoning a carbon steel wok

I have a carbon steel wok but it became rusty recently when I forgot something in it for a day. I decided to scrub everything off and re-season it. The problem

Cooking a ham a second time

I put a ham in the fridge to defrost earlier this week. It was from a half-hog custom order we got so I'm not 100% sure but I think the processors said it was c

Cabbage rolls question

Can I make cabbage rolls (I use ground beef, rice, seasons, egg and sour cream as the filling) the night before I am going to cook them at 11 the next morning.

Sealed cold press coffee bottle for 2 months and let it brew. Is it safe to consume it?

I put coffee beans(coarse grind) in a glass bottle and filled it with water(1 part beans to 5 parts water). I sealed this bottle and stored it in a dark cold pl

How long can you keep pizza dough in the fridge?

We usually keep pizza dough in the fridge for three days before making the pizza. We use the normal ingredients such as flour, sugar, salt, yeast, olive oil an

Why my fan oven is taking soo long to cook chicken?

I have a brand-new digital Electrolux microwave that comes with fan oven. I'm cooking poultry (like 3 pieces of small thighs) and it takes more than 30 minutes

Fully cooked chicken tastes kind of weird

I bought some frozen chicken cubes, defrosted them in the fridge and put them in the oven for 12+ mins. The chicken was white and the juices that ran out was cl

Straining seeds from jam

I have a jar of real fruit jam, made without pectin, it tastes fantastic but the berry seeds are extremely hard. Can I reheat it in a pot on the stove and strai

Sourdough starter without whole grain flour

Is it possible to make sourdough starter without whole grain flour? I have glanced over the two recipes: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/sourdough-start