The Food Geek
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The Cake Bump
1 commentAn uneven surface at the top of the cake is not uncommon. Here we take a look at ways to mitigate, prevent, and/or fix the problem.
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Converting Measurements
How many teaspoons are in a tablespoon? Will this be a one-word answer?
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Baking Soda and Baking Powder
2 commentsHow these two leaveners get a rise out of baked goods.
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Cast Iron Nutrition
Iron is good for a diet, but will a cast-iron pan add iron to the diet?
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Lifting a Choux
Pâte à choux is useful in many culinary circumstances, and it's relatively easy to make. Still, sometimes things go wrong for no apparent reason. Let's see some of the pitfalls of this dish and how to fix them.
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Tomato Sauce. . .Or Soup?
3 commentsWhy does what should be a tasty tomato sauce turn into something closer to soup?
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What does it mean to win?
4 commentsSometimes it's not enough to make great food. Sometimes you have to judge food formally. And sometimes you have to make up the rules by which things are judged. A look inside the process of making competition rules.
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Too Hot for Hollandaise
1 commentHow temperature, ingredients, and technique interact in distinguishing a hollandaise from a mess of scrambled eggs, butter, and lemon.
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Mystery Tools from Another Land
6 commentsGetting a box of assorted kitchen implements will give you a mixed bag of tools at the best of times. But what if the set is from a company that is not only exclusively kitchen-related, but is also based out of a foreign country?
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Ingredient Temperatures
Think it doesn’t matter if your butter and eggs are room temperature or right out of the fridge? Think again.
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Dried Egg Pasta: Hidden Danger or Perfectly Safe?
2 commentsWhen someone at home makes some fresh pasta, it's generally made with egg. Why is this okay to dry and store?
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The Flavor Difference: Cooked vs. Raw
2 commentsWhy does a cooked hamburger taste different from a raw hamburger?
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Cheesecake or Cheesepie?
8 commentsIt's shaped like a cake, and it's called a cake, but cheesecake might be something even more delicious.
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The Problem with Science
2 commentsA rhetorical question from the web leads to thinking about the good and the bad of food science.
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Egg sizes and substitutions
9 commentsHow can we merge the world of farmer's markets and precision recipes to ensure that we use the proper amount of farm-fresh, un-graded eggs in our baked goods?
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The Best Scrambled Eggs
13 commentsIt is often said that the true test of a chef is how well they cook eggs. The Food Geek is not a chef, but he does have some advice on scrambling eggs.
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Double or Nothing Jam
5 commentsWhy does the label on the pectin box warn against making a double-batch of jam, and is there anything that can be done to remedy the situation?
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Proper use of basil as a stuffing
Basil is the King of Herbs, and it's the right time to use it in foods. This week, we explore what it goes well with, and how to maximize its flavor.
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ABOUT THE FOOD GEEK
Kitchen Mysteries is a weekly exploration of oddities surrounding cooking and food. They could be recipes that fail when they shouldn't, conflicting advice from different sources, or just plain weirdness. If it happens in a kitchen, and you're not sure why, send a tweet to The Food Geek to find out what's happening.
Brian Geiger started down the path of food geekdom after attending cooking school in Tuscany. A robotics project manager by day, he writes Fine Cooking’s Food Geek column, and in this blog tackles readers’ culinary mysteries every week. Be sure to check out his own blog at thefoodgeek.com.
