Category "food-safety"

How easily can table salt be contaminated?

In Alton Brown and The Food Lab Play With Chicken, Alton Brown (jokingly?) chides J. Kenji Lopez-Alt for touching raw chicken right before pinching salt from a

Mortar used to process paste containing candlenuts - risk of contaminating raw foods?

If I use a mortar and pestle for working with candlenuts (who are considered mildly toxic when raw), to make a paste that is later cooked, how thoroughly and ho

Can I / should I keep spices & dried herbs in the fridge?

Common wisdom regarding spice storage (whether whole or ground) seems to tend towards cool, dark, dry places. However, I'm somewhat limited on kitchen cupboard

Are cockroaches a usable source of protein?

Bear with me, this is an entirely serious if not necessarily particularly practical question :) In The Damage Done, perhaps the best known notionally non-ficti

Are there food safety issues at a teppan restaurant?

My family & I recently went out to a teppanyaki restaurant. The food was great and we had no issues with food poisoning, but it got me wondering about their

How hot is the bottom of a pot of boiling water?

I need to put a plastic bag in a pot of boiling water. The bag is rated to handle up to 200C (400F). I will be using a stainless steel (or aluminum) pot on a ga

Are paper kitchen towels food-safe?

When I fry pierogi or potatoes, and even though the oil I use is minimal, I try to maximize the oil I discard by letting the fried food sit on a paper kitchen t

Crab - brown meat looks grey

Yesterday I cooked two brown crabs for dinner. Both were alive and kicking immediately before I cooked them. They weighed 700g each and I boiled them for 19 min

Thawed frozen dough

I bought a Bridgford ready dough. I kept it thawing in the refrigerator for a week. Is it safe to use this frozen dough that has been thawing in the refrigerat

Safety and quality of low-price imported beef sold in US supermarkets

As a recent resident of Southern California, I noticed in a supermarket very impressive looking sirloin strip steak for $4.99 per pound. Regular prices in other

How to tell if baked drumsticks are done?

I have baked my chicken drumsticks for roughly 40 mins at approximately 420 F. I do not have a meat thermometer, so am looking for another way to determine its

Plastic containers exposed to heat while cooking

I was making soup, and it involved removing some of it to reintroduce after pureeing. Not thinking, I just tossed the cooked mushrooms back into the plastic con

How to know if a zip lock bag is safe for sous-vide (or boiling), without indication from the manufacturer?

The only zip lock bags available in local stores for me are labelled that they are supposed to be used for refrigerating food. Is it possible to know whether t

Is taro (satoimo) bark edible after grilling?

I'm aware that raw taro is toxic and needs to be properly cooked. However, I'm seeing some conflicting information online about eating taro bark. An article o

Why does canned food expire soon once the can is opened?

Canned food can maintain 1+ year in good state. However, when you open the can, the countdown starts. I read it happens because microorganism from the outside

reusing utensil during cooking [duplicate]

When I'm cooking something, say boiling chicken in a pot or less commonly baking it, I may poke, shift, or stir it with a utensil while its co

Salted chicken safe refrigeration time [duplicate]

I have a chicken burrito that has a high salt content and lots of hot sauce in it. Will it stay safe refrigerated any longer than regular cook

Soaked urad ki dal too long - Is it safe?

I soaked black dal for too long (24 hours) and its colour changed from black to green and it smells very bad, can I still use it or not ?

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

How to recognize mold?

I am looking for criteria to tell whether food has mold on it. Some classic cases are easy to distinguish (unbaked flour vs bread mold). However in case I don't