Legend

I’m shipping family these Florentines for Christmas but want advice if I should add a preservative like sodium benzoate to keep them good to eat roughly 10 days out of the freezer.

https://whippedfood.com/chocolate-florentine-cookies/

I plan to bake them and freeze them immediately once cool with parchment paper between each so they can be shipped straight from the freezer priority mail for 2-3 day delivery about a week before Christmas.

I don’t want to wait too close to the 25th and risk them not being there in time so I want to ship them around the 16th/17th.

Do you think I’d need to add a preservative? I’m not trying to keep a doughy cookie soft or anything, just want it to still be fine to eat 19 days later. (Knowing my family they won’t make it past the 26th so I’m not worried about them staying good for too long after Xmas)

I've looked at a lot of mashed potatoes recipes, and all of them handle removing skins differently.

Some boil with the skins on, then peel after they're cooked. Others will peel before boiling. Then these recipes process the potatoes through a ricer.

If you're going to use a ricer, why would you bother to peel the potatoes? Using a ricer removes the skins for you.

Hi everyone. I wanted to ask about cooking Crepes: when I cook them I always get some brighter spots, on the side against the hot plate. Could it be the hot plate that causes them? How can I get a smoothly colored side? In the crepes shop where I work we fold them so customers see a bit of those spots.

https://imgur.com/a/RXebC2G

Thank you

G’day all,

I need your help: how can I cook two steaks to different levels of doneness in a single pan?

I like my steaks blue, while my partner prefers them medium. I cannot, for the life of me, get them both to the correct doneness. One is either too raw or too cooked.

I have tried different methods:

• Getting the pan searing hot, putting both steaks in at once, and removing the blue steak first while the medium one stays in the pan. The blue steak is great. The medium steak ends up being burnt by the time the inside is cooked.
• Using the same method as above, but reducing the temperature when I remove the blue steak to let it rest. The medium steak ends up nicely cooked, but the blue steak is cold by the time the medium steak is ready.
• Setting the pan on medium-high heat, putting the medium steak in first, and after a couple of minutes, adding the blue steak. Again, the medium steak is good, but the blue steak lacks a nice sear.

I am running out of ideas!

EDIT: I forgot to precise, I only have a pan and a stove. I cannot access an oven or a sous-vide at the moment. Keeping things interesting :)

I am planning to smoke a turkey (probably spatchcocked) on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving Should I cut it up when I put it in the fridge and try to reheat that the whole thing in the oven the next day or just cut it up? I am only concerned with results and not presentation.

It was popped in the oven at 350 F for about 10-20 minutes.

What causes this and how can I avoid it next time?

Is it safe to still use?

https://imgur.com/a/bwL5Voz

Thank you!

https://imgur.com/a/86Amtcx

What are the black things floating in my cabbage soup? The only ingredients I used were cabbage, onions and garlic. I used spices but none with herbs. It was made on Monday and stored in the fridge since then. Is it bad?

Didnt buy it often, but i woudve always used the delicous part. What can I do with the bitter end?

I read a few articles about adding baking powder to salt during a dry brine; it sounds cool but I’m doing a wet citrus brine for my practice turkey. I plan on drying it out in the fridge for several hours. This might sound dumb, but could I slather on a baking powder paste just during that drying time? I have a citrusy herb marinade with butter I’ll be using just prior to roasting. Thanks yall!

When making a sauce and/or gravy with flour that is put into the pan along with all of the other ingredients...AND...If I am wanting to add BOTH wine (or some kind of alcohol) and a stock into my dish...

1. Am I supposed to 'deglaze' the pan with the wine/alcohol before putting in the flour? Or...
2. Am I supposed to put in the flour first in order to 'cook off' the flour and thoroughly 'incorporate' the flour into the fat/butter/drippings, before adding the wine?

Basically, is the order of operations supposed to be...

• Wine/Alcohol (for deglazing) --> Flour (for fat/gravy) --> Stock
• Flour (for fat/gravy) --> Wine/Alcohol (for deglazing) --> Stock

How do they do it in a professional French/Western kitchen/restaurant? Is this going to depend on the actual recipe itself and/or the individual cook's preference? Would it also depend on the type of ingredients?

I cooked a whole chicken in a dutch oven with salt, garlic powder and pepper. Some spices got burnt (most likely the pepper, done the same thing before but without peppar and it turned out great)

I then took out the chicken, dumped a kilogram of Jasmin Rice into the dutch oven, cooked it up then stripped the flesh from the chicken and added it into the cooked rice.

It has a slight bitter aftertaste, since it's basically my food for the next week it would be nice to save it or make it tastier to eat.

Uhm, I know this sounds weird but we don't want it on crackers, is there anyway I could do a quick and hard sear on the outside and eat it with the rest of my food? Is that a terrible idea? It's in the shape of a loaf, so, looks easy to sear.

Thanks!

Yesterday I made frozen chocolate custard, I combined the ingredients, put the mixture on the stove to kill bacteria and let it thicken up slightly. Then I put it in the fridge, so I could turn it into ice cream today. I checked on the mixture and it is quite thick, almost like pudding. The fridge I put it in is really cold, so maybe that's where I went wrong? Did I ruin it or is there a way to save it? (I have used this recipe successfully in the past, but I kept it in a different fridge to cool it. Once I heated the mixture too much and it became thick.)

I have these Roma Tomatoes from Aldi US and want to cook them in a soup. They are somewhat hard, have a little give to them and want to know based on this color of they'd be good for a soup or of I'd be better off getting a more vibe ripened variety.

Thanks!

Currently not able to go to the store so DoorDashed some things. Dasher got me a regular pumpkin instead of a pie pumpkin but I decided to make puree anyway. My mistake.

Obviously what came out was fairly bland. Its pretty thick so no concern there but wondering if I can bring the flavor out more by putting on low on the stove for a while, maybe add some sugar, or if I should just repurpose it and buy canned puree/ a different pumpkin. I'm just trying to avoid wasting money, but also don't want to make a pie nobody will enjoy.

Thanks in advance.

As a college student I’ve how much cheaper it is to get whole chickens and using the whole bird. I’d say I’m halfway decent at actually butchering the chicken but I’m having a lot of trouble getting the bones out of the wings/ thighs (for stock) without mangling the meat. Any tips would be appreciated!

Honing my knieves leaves black lines on my ceramic rod. I assume that this build up will result in less efficient results. Is it necessary to clean a ceramic rod? If so, how beat to clean it?

Hello

I am planning on having people over for dinner and am trying to craft the dishes for the night. I know my entree is going to be braised short ribs served over polenta. So far I dont have many ideas on an appetizer although I understand it should be light, I do not know the intricasies of like should it contrast or go with the main course, should it be a soup or a salad or more meat questions of such sort. Any help with sides would be appreciated as well. Im thinking of squash or other seasonal vegatables probably.

I have a crab apple juice with a nice color to it that I would like to make gel cubes with. I know the crab apples have a lot of pectin and the juice on its own is a bit thick. I'm also adding sugar and a bit of lemon juice. I tried setting it with gelatin and it was cloudy and didn't set. I tried agat and it set, but was cloudy as well. Is there a way to get this to set will staying clear?

Assuming some sort of hand sanding with a fine grain sand paper. After sharpening, is there anything that should be applied? Exhibit A

When I was in school I attended a luncheon held by the culinary department. I sent an email to the teacher asking for the recipe. This is the email i received back:

“Create a 2-1 ratio sugar to water syrup. Add enough apple cider vinegar to reach 27 brix and infuse with plenty of lilac overnight before spinning in your ice cream machine.”

I ordered a brix refractometer, and while it’s working when I calibrated it with plain water, I have added 1 1/2-2 cups of apple cider vinegar which seems like too much to me, it still shows the sugar being 30+.

I did 2 cups of sugar to 1 cup water and did not reduce. Anyone have an idea of how much apple cider vinegar I should have used? The mixture is still on the stove and I’m willing to make a bigger batch to troubleshoot it.

Hi Everyone!

I've been trying to make thai coconut jello that naturally separates the water and coconut milk but everytime I make it the coconut milk is mixed and results of the jello is completely white (instead of two colors)!

I'm wondering if anyone has some tips so that the milk and water can separate naturally! (It looks like a white top (coconut milk) and clear base (for water)

I'm not sure if I'm cooking it for too long or if my coconut milk is the issue

I know I can cook the ingredients separately and layer them but that'd be too easy!

Anything helps thank you!

It is a thick dark sauce with strong and maybe caramelised taste, I know that it contains soy sauce and maybe melasses?!

https://imgur.com/a/zbLLdna

I hate hard boiling eggs and I’m not good at it. We love egg sandwiches in this house but I can’t seem to cook them right and I just hate peeling the eggs. I’m not looking for poached eggs those are a little difficult for me to get down too. All eggs really not my thing.

Could I in theory crack some eggs in a bag keeping yolks whole and sous vide them and end up with the same texture as when kept in the shell? Then just chop it up real quick and mix fillings in?

Edit: ok it seems that with this method I would really be poaching the eggs. Which is fine the texture would be the same. Can I do say 6-8 eggs in 1 bag without it cooking weird?

Thank you all for the great suggestions. Didn’t expect the cooking police to come out tho and act like I’m incompetent, I cook almost everything from scratch everyone has a food they can’t master. I know I can crack them and boil in shell various ways I just can’t get boiled eggs down. Layered biscuits, smooth cheesecake in your gal. I’m going to look into silicon molds and egg cookers. I cook a lot from scratch I just don’t want to deal with this hiccup anymore and want an easy fix.

i make beef stock a month back and now i want to make french onion soup with it however my dad warned me not to use the stock as now that it's been frozen I can't refreeze it or keep it in the fridge long before it spoils should i just use store bought stock?

I'm making a Middle Eastern dish called Mujadara, which typically uses brown lentils. I only have green lentils, which I haven't tried before. Will using green lentils make a difference in the dish? Do they differ in flavor?

Hey, I made a boneless chicken theigh dish earlier this week and now I have an abundance of raw chicken bones. I want to make bone broth with them since I can’t reference them as they were previously frozen. My question is what temp and how long do I roast them for before adding them to my stock pot? Any special techniques with the process anyone wants to share would be cool too. TIA.

I have a recipe which uses some of the leftover dough from the last batch (see below). I don't have any leftover dough atm, so how do I replace it? Do I just add a bit of extra yeast?

Ingredients

Makes 5 pizzas

500 cc water

2 lb strong flour

1 oz carry-over dough (a piece of dough preserved from a previously-made pizza dough)

1½ tbsp salt

1½ tsp brewer's yeast

Half an egg

Half teaspoon sugar

One teaspoon lard

So I've a favorite dish of pasta and i guess we woulc call it a ragu .. sofrito, ground meat, garlic and tomato sauce is in it . .And i find it incredibly difficult to salt this properly.. I generally like 2% (on burgers, based on weight of patty), but for some reason it always feels like whenever tomato sauce's involved salting doesn't quite do what you expect .. But .. is my ususal 2% salt per weight applicable here? My primary worry is losing the bright note of the tomatosauce..