General Q&A about cooking.
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Newbie baker here: What actually is the difference between baking soda and baking powder? As far as I know, both are used to get baked goods to rise (like yeast, but not a microorganism). Since the...
I recently made a peach cobbler following a recipe that called for equal parts of white sugar and brown sugar in both the fruit mix and the topping. This got me wondering about the functions of th...
I've eaten pizza that has basil leaves as a topping, and the leaves come out bright green and tender. I used fresh basil from my garden on pizza for the first time today, and -- predictable, in re...
I have an air fryer and I really like cooking my food in it. With that said, I have struggled with potatoes. For now, I have only gotten store-bought pre-baked and frozen ones. I am not sure what I...
I'm a big fan of the Spanish omelette, which is called 'Tortilla de patatas' (potato omelette) in Spanish. To prepare them, one of the first steps is to peel the potatoes and then cut them into sl...
I heard that if you have to freeze food, it's better to flash freeze it (given you have the means to do it). I also know that flash freezing (as the name implies) is a method to cool down a given o...
Whenever I make an omelet I have a hard time turning it over to fry it from both sides. I use a plate, cover the pan and turn everything so that, in the best case, the omelet now is on my plate and...
I have some pretty common knives at home that I use for cutting vegetables, fish, meat and everything else that needs cutting. I don't have specific knives for specific kinds of food but rather use...
In the recent years, I noticed a lot of ads for different kind of salts but especially sea salt. For example, in my supermarket there are instant meals "refined with the natural taste of sea salt"....
I have some bread that is about a week old, and it has some tiny white mold spots on the crust. Would it be safe to trim them off and eat the rest of the bread? If not could I use it in cooking e.g...
There's nothing like peeling a pound of ginger root to make one wonder if there's a better way to deal with all the branches and knobby bits. I normally peel ginger with a paring knife; for larger...
I like my food to be relatively spicy. Not everybody likes it so I sometimes overdo it when cooking with friends: near the end of the meal preparation, the food is too spicy for them and I know tha...
I cook quite frequently and one thing that I use everytime I cook is a knife. Recently, I've grown unsatisfied with the knives I have as they are all dull and sharpening them doesn't really do the ...
I know that fermented products are high in glutamates (see minute food video), which is why wines are often used in cooking. But I'm looking for a non-alcoholic alternative to wines. That is, not ...
I sometimes cook for someone who needs to avoid milk products, so I got some plant-based "cheese" (listed as cultured vegan cheese) to use instead of the real thing. I'm having trouble getting it ...
I have a pellet grill which can be used to cook with indirect heat. There is a big metal plate that covers the flame completely. Basically the food cooks with hot air coming up around the sides of ...
I would like to be able to freeze unbaked bread dough, so that at some later time I (or someone I'm giving it to) could thaw it out and then bake it. (Fresh-baked bread is nicer than thawed alread...
Tonight I was preparing poblano peppers for baking (with stuffing). I wore gloves to protect my hands from the oils, and (after a recent case where that wasn't enough) I also ran the vent fan. Ho...
There was recently a recall for certain flour, due to risk of salmonella contamination. The CDC announcement says not to cook with the flour. Naturally they are going to be conservative, and they...
I like to bake a pancake in the oven, instead of in a frying pan atop the stove. The basic recipe is the same (flour, milk, eggs, butter, salt; mix, pour into a roasting pan, bake in the oven at me...
I have a copy of Elizabeth David's 'Italian food', which contains a number of traditional Italian recipes. One of these recipes is ragù (which we'll use for lasagne) and one of the ingredients in ...
How do I prevent Swedish meatballs from falling apart? I don't really have a fixed recipe. I use minced meat, bread crumbs, grated onion, eggs, cream and spices. I also did allow the bread crumbs t...
I recently made some potato and leek soup. The recipe I followed said that after cooking the ingredients until soft, I should liquify the soup in a blender. I let the blender run for about two minu...
If I'm cooking, I usually prepare large quantities of food so I can stockpile meals for the upcoming week and don't have to cook too often. In the past, I froze everything in my freezer. Recently, ...
I like to keep hard cheese at home, and use it from time to time -- in everything from sandwiches to cooking. However, there are periods (sometimes up to a few weeks) when I just don't use all that...
When creating an ice-cream recipe or making substitutions in an existing one, what are the key ratios I should take into account?
Usually, I prepare food in large quantities and freeze most of it so I don't have to cook the following days. I'm used to the part where food that is frozen the normal, slow way loses some of its o...
I recently asked a question about how to best turn an omelet. @Pestana suggested an omelet maker for doing so: I don't want to buy a kitchen tool for a sole purpose so my question is what could I ...
I learned as a kid that mixing anything into (commercial) mayonnaise will cause it to spoil much faster. Therefore, I was told, don't even put a wet spoon in: the small amount of water on the spoon...
I've made cold cherry soup a few times from a recipe that calls for thickening it with a little cornstarch, but I always end up with some small clumps of what I presume are the starch in the finish...
I have read a bit about sous vide, which seems to be basically just boiling in a plastic bag. Well, boiling is not true since the temperature is lower, but why is the plastic bag needed? What diffe...
I have a beef rendang recipe I'd like to bring to a small potluck. However, some of the attendees are Jewish and keep kosher. I know there are some restrictions on cooking milk and meat together, b...
Some of the prepackaged cookie dough at my local store is specifically marked as being safe for eating without cooking first. What is different about this type of cookie dough compared to regular c...
I used to get packages of "chicken leg quarters". These seem to be out of stock in my area recently. Sticking to the general legs part of a chicken, I noticed there are quite a few different pre-...
I almost always end up with extra cold brew coffee and sometimes don't get around to drinking it for a couple of days. I know that it lasts longer than hot brewed coffee, but in general how long wi...
I make bread once a week from the same sourdough starter, which lives in the fridge between feedings. On the day before baking day I take it out, feed it, wait until it's fully active, take some o...
Sometimes when backcountry camping, I will have my cold brew sock and access to fairly cold water (just barely possible to go swimming) , but of course not a refrigerator. It will stay fairly cold ...
I emigrated from the United States and one thing I really miss is the meltability of American "cheese". (The scare quotes are because it's a cheese-based product rather than real cheese.) There's n...
I live in New York City and Toronto. When travelling was safe before COVID, I ate 海蜇頭 at a restaurant in Hong Kong. I'm trying to sidestep Chinese food products, not least because of their f...
I bought shucked geoduck from Sunny Supermarket in Toronto fresh three times now. After I purge this fresh shuck with saltwater, I sliced it. But slices are these squat wedges in pics 1-2! Bu...
Today I tried a particular sourdough bread recipe for the first time. For a 1.5-pound loaf, in addition to the usual dry ingredients, dried herbs, and sourdough starter, it called for the followin...
If you leave yoghurt alone for a bit, it tends to separate and leave a puddle of liquid at the top. I was always told just to drain the liquid when it happens, but I'm wondering if it's better to s...
I made a braided challah that came out reasonably overall but tastes a little dry. I'm not sure which parameters I need to adjust. The recipe I followed specifies the following ingredients: 3/...
I have a family member who reacts poorly to homemade bread with yeast in it. (Store-bought is fine, somehow. IDK.) I don't want to exclude him, but I also don't want my nice convenient bread maker ...
How long do I need to marinate a piece of meat for flavor to penetrate all the way into it? Are there easy calculations based on the maximum thickness? Does it also depend on the kind of meat or sa...
Let's say I go hunting for rabbits/squirrels/hares/deer and get one. One doesn't want to cook/process them right away because the meat will become more tender after it has refrigerated for a while...
Can you please ID this dish? It's from Shang Palace in H.K.. I see char marks and think this was wok fried. I see wok fried shredded carrots and mushrooms, and some egg slices on top. But what are ...
In 2017, my family and I travelled to Maritime provinces in Canada, then Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts to view fall foliage. We noticed that all restaurants there cooked seafood in just two ...
If you Google, you can see that many recipes use coconut milk as the "soup" base for curries. Why coconut milk though? I would've never dreamed of this mix! I would've guessed vegetable or some mea...
I don't speak any Asian language. Why shake raw sea cucumbers "in a box for more than an hour to deliver a unique texture"? What's the science behind this? 吃喝玩樂 - Diary of a Growing Boy: A s(chl)o...
