Latest Cooking Answers

Sticky, messy sourdough: overfermented, or ambient factors?

I've made the same sourdough bread a dozen times before, with small variations in parameters: 360g white flour 240g whole wheat flour 390g water That's a 65% do

What is a good technique for making a very small amount of caramel?

By caramel I mean caramelised sugar made into a sauce with butter. What is the best way to make a caramel sauce if only a tiny quantity is required? What is th

Can I know if lemons are safe to eat whole (peel and all)?

Is there any way to tell if lemons contain a residue of something that is harmful to humans? The last two winters we have been buying oranges in bulk through a

Dough rising and oxygen. How does it work exactly?

Despite being easily the most rudimentary stuff in bread making and heavily discussed and written about, the relationship between oxygen and rising still appear

Why does meat dry out in high heat despite being submerged in liquid?

My understanding is cooking over long periods will break down collagen and other proteins. Won't the breakdown of protein cause the meat to lose structural inte

How should I store salmon en croute?

I've half a pound of salmon en croute (made from this recipe) left over from dinner this evening. I've never dealt with pastry encrusted salmon, so I'm not sure

Steak pie filling thickener

for all bakers out there, which pie thickener do you use? I have tried to use Modified starch which smell bad when making slurry then pour in hot gravy liquid a

How to choose not only juicy lemons but lemons with less acrid flavor

What is the teaching in choosing lemons—I know the obvious of picking heavy weight lemons, avoiding a dried-out looking lemon with significant pitting. I

What are these white spots in my bread dough?

I'm making hot cross buns following this recipe: https://domesticgothess.com/blog/2020/03/09/vegan-hot-cross-buns/ About an hour into the first rise, I'm seeing

Does saturated fat result in crispier fried food?

I was watching this video of Kenji making Kung Pao chicken, in which he claims that frying in saturated fat results in crispier food. Is there any truth to this

Pasta machine rolls dough wider than machine

I have a (admittedly rather cheap) pasta roller that I try to use fairly regularly. The issue is that when I am rolling it out,the dough keeps getting wider, no

Is there a way to quantify smoke in meat while cooking?

I've observed across multiple meats and cuts of meats that the other impact of smoking varies greatly. Additionally, while actually smoking my perception of the

Can I make idli without rice? [closed]

I want to avoid rice due to my diabetes. So can I make idli only with urad dal? Currently, I am using rice rava and urad dal in the same propo

By how much should I shorten the cooking time of a slow cooker recipe if I'm only using half the meat?

I'm thinking of making either this recipe or this recipe for pork tenderloin in a slow cooker. As easy as a slow cooker is, I'm no slow cooker expert, and have

Why is there a sheet of paper in packages of minced meat?

In German supermarkets, minced meat is usually sold in a plastic box under what’s described as a “Schutzatmosphere” (protective atmosphere). I

Iranian Sweet Dish consisting of Lamb Paste

I am trying to identify a dish I had a while ago while traveling in Iran. It was in Isfahan, and none of the languages I speak seemed particularly common with t

Why did I get wrinkled bagels?

I made bagels for the first time yesterday. I followed the instructions...my bagels tasted great...but they ended up "wrinkled" after baking. It was a copycat r

Firming up Neapolitan Pizza Crust

We cooked some pizza last night and had a good time. However, the crust was limp. I was expecting to tap the bottom and hear the tap tap tap sound but it was to

Soy bean cooking safety

I looked online and most recipes called for 3hr of cooking dried and soaked soy beans. My question is if it's instead safe to boil for 10-15min then simmer for

Days kept after opening mentioned in packages and how valid are they?

I bought a pita bread package, that I saw it writes: after opening keep in an airtight container and consume within 2 days. The thing is that I am keeping it in

With vs without egg fresh pasta cooking time

If you have identically sized/shaped/thickness of fresh pasta noodles, with egg and without, is there any difference in cooking time? My son and his girlfriend

Beef Short ribs still chewy after internal temperature reach 201F [duplicate]

so i currently start to cook beef short ribs on a vertical smoker. The short ribs i used comes from australian company called hardwicks. I coo

Settling Up the Dispute over Poached Egg's Definition

Fact: You can poach an egg without acid, although adding a tiny bit helps a lot with the egg white to set easier. Current situation: My friend (a culinary gradu

How to make a gel that doesn't harden at below freezing temperatures

So I have an idea for a lemon bar ice cream and I want to swirl in the custard and add chunks of short bread in. I could just make the custard for a lemon bar a

Does brewing tea for longer result in higher caffeine content?

The ISO standard for brewing tea says "6 minutes". Of course different teas have vastly different properties, but... For "average commodity black tea" and "av

Can cooked chicken meat be edible if the carcass smells bad?

I roasted a whole chicken about 40 hours ago. I separated the carcass from the meat and stored them separately. The meat smells and tastes fine but the carcass

What is this brown deposit at the bottom of my Oil can?

We use Filtered groundnut oil for cooking at home. However, we recently changed the brand due to non-availability during COVID-19 lock-down. While pouring the l

Making my Chicken Madras more savoury

I have been trying to imitate the gold standard of curries; The British Indian Restaurant (BIR) Chicken Madras and have had some success. I have made the base-c

How long can fruit macerate in the fridge?

I have begun to macerate pitted cherries in sugar and lemon juice. Due to some issues, I've had to leave them macerating for 2 days before I cook & can them

Rule of thumb for conventional oven baking vs. grilling kebabs (ground meat &

I am trying to cook two different ground meat as a kebab (I already had the preparation done for ground venison and ground lamb Adana kebabs). Most of the recip