TheFoodGeek

Any type of sugar should cause that effect, though I suspect that the finer the sugar, the faster the coagulation, because the fine sugar will dissolve more easily in the water.

It's a good point. There are a lot of pretzel recipes that don't call for the baking soda and just have a light-brown coloration as well. For me, a proper pretzel will be that thoroughly dark brown, and a bagel will be somewhat lighter. Though I'd bet a pretzel bagel with salt coating is someone's specialty treat somewhere.

It's funny, that post I did made me take a look at my cookie making routine a bit closer when I made cookies this weekend. Knowing what to do and doing what you're supposed to do are not always the same, are they?

angiecbrown, since you're going to freeze it, you're going to need to thaw it. The best way to know if a dough is thawed is to wait for it to expand in size, which shows that the yeast are active again. Because of that, I think that you can safely skip the second rise. You'll have to do another rise anyways, so no sense having the yeast try to do all that extra work.

The other option is that you can par bake (or partially bake) the loaf. In this way, you get it set to its basic shape, but you don't do the browning. This will not necessarily yield the most flavor from the loaf, but it is reasonably convenient.

jacjem, I would suggest not letting the meat rest so long. Don't worry about the foil tent, but the goal is to get the meat to around 120°F. If it drops below that, you've rested too long. If you don't like the temperature of meat even at 120, you can cut the resting shorter even than that, but it will be a balance between temperature and juiciness.

SheSavorsSeattle, I am pleased to have been of assistance. And yes, I understand the difficulty of not writing about the subject as a double entendre. I just figured I'd power through and it should be okay.

celinda, AP flour has more gluten than cake flour. You can find more about that at http://www.finecooking.com/item/9842/which-flour-is-best-for-pasta

barbski, brown basmati has more flavor than white basmati, but it also takes longer to cook in general. I would go ahead and soak either.

That is great to hear. I am all for ending domestic disharmony. You are quite welcome.

Both of you are quite welcome. Arseneault, you will likely also want to look into using a wider salt, such as a kosher salt or fleur de sel. These salts don't dissolve as quickly nor as thoroughly as table salt, so you don't have to use as much of it to get the benefits of the salt.

Smitty2k2, I generally hear that 30 minutes is a good amount of time to soak basmati rice. Don't cook the rice in the soaking water, drain and fill with new water.

CityGardner, the rinsing is to clear away starch granules that are on the outside of the rice. This works for any long-grained rice, and will keep the rice from sticking together. Rinse 2-3 times if you are so inclined, though I prefer my rice to stick together. It makes it easier to eat.

The flavor is part of the rice, and not on the surface, so you don't have to worry about washing the flavor off.

It occurs to me that poaching might be interesting as well. Or perhaps some manner of short rib confit. Hmmmmmmmm.

I am fortunate to have never run across twigs nor rocks from my flour. Where did you get that flour anyways? In that case, yeah, I think you're going to want to use a sifter or a fine mesh to separate your flour out, as the whisk method isn't going to handle twigs well. Lumps should be demolished by a food processor easily, though, and maybe not as easily with the whisk.

Thank you for the extra insight, and I'm glad you're enjoying the blog.

Hi, 1Steve,

chefrox is correct, the molasses in the brown sugar is the acidic ingredient in your recipe. If you use older eggs, they will become alkaline and may neutralize some of the acidity, which may reduce fluff or add that soapy taste into your cookies.

son of brooklyn, a better way to know which baking powders to use is to check the ingredients and consult the table in Shirley Corriher's indispensable BakeWise (though the source of the table was from somewhere else entirely, that was the easiest way for me to find it). http://books.google.com/books?id=b-iwjIb2RxwC&lpg=PP1&pg=PT59#v=onepage&q=&f=false That table gives the percentage of carbon dioxide released at various points of the mixing and baking cycle, and will give you a better understanding of how your particular baking powder will react.

For your homemade powder if you're using immediately, feel free to ditch the cornstarch. Just remember not to use as much of the cornstarch-free baking powder as you otherwise would. Think about how much baking soda is being used in the whole baked good, and use accordingly.

Those are some great rules, LpAngelRob, thank you.

Well, I mean, if it's *crucial*…

It's nice to hear that there are some tools for those who need level cakes.

AuntJenny, I have Rose Levy Beranbaum's Pie and Pastry Bible, but don't have her cake book yet. I'm sure I'll pick up a copy sooner or later.

I should also mention that someone on Facebook suggests that the bump is both good and necessary, as it allows the baker to verify the quality of the cake without damaging the look. But it's great that we have options for cakes both with and without any frosting.

That's a great tip. Something similar also works well on some fruits for pies, which have pretty much the same problem. Freeze, for example, blueberries, heat in a sauce pan and reduce, and you have a very tasty pie filling base.

Thank you both. I was worried that a couple of the rules would be a bit cumbersome, but I think we'll be okay. I'll know soon.

What you have there is a clip on funnel. Usually for motor oil, you might be able to find a way to use it in the kitchen. I'd clean it really well, first, though. ;)

http://www.wirthco.com/funnels-fluid-control-products-clip-funnel-c-17_59-l-en.html

This is good to know. I will try out Stretch-Rite. The easiest way to get it is just to order it from Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Stretch-tite-Premium-Plastic-516-12-Ft-8-Inch/dp/B001F0RBLA/

Well, really the height depends on the style of cheesecake. I will admit to favoring the New York style cheesecake as the form I was describing. For home chefs, it's unlikely that the cheesecake will be more than 2-3/4" tall, unless they go the extra mile to find a specialized springform pan or bake in some other type of pan.

We don't have official PieFest rules for judging posted yet.

Hi, Carrie,

Looks like you need to do some additional experimentation. For the first round, let's go with the easy to differentiate stuff: temperature, fat, and surface area.

We know we're going to taste different flavors when something is warm vs. when it's cold, regardless of its cooked state. It's very difficult to get something uncooked but warm, but not so difficult to do the other way. So you might do something like take some steak, cut into thin slices, cook the same amount, then serve one immediately and put one onto something like a cookie sheet that just came out of the freezer while the first one was cooking. After eating the first piece, the second one should cool quickly, so eat the second one shortly after. Try that the other way around as best you can; instead of eating the warm piece immediately, wrap it in aluminum foil and put under a heating pad. Cool the first piece, eat it, then eat the warm piece. See if there's any differences if you change the order, see what kind of difference just from the temperature differences.

For the fat amounts, try the same test as above, except instead of having one piece be warm and the other cool, after cooking brush a little flavorless oil over one piece and not the other. You could also do something similar by making hamburger with lean beef instead of fatty, then putting some fat in the center of the patty (clarified butter, for example). You could even try putting some beef fat from the same cow in one patty, and clarified butter in the other, just to see if not the percentage of fat but the actual flavor of fat from that cow changes the flavor (I suspect it will quite a bit). To go just a bit further, you could mix fat from one cow with the beef from another and see what happens there.

Surface area is important when cooking, because the more surface area there is, the more browning there will be. Even when not cooking, if you add other flavorants to it, the flavors will mix more with the meat if there's more surface area. So ensure that temperature is kept constant for this test, and try a few variations with only the surface area changing. The easiest way to test this would be on a raw, tartare style preparation. Same weight of beef, same amount of oil, same amount of salt, spices, etc., but one prep has it in a block, another has it rough chopped, fine chopped, ground, etc.

So you see where this is basically going: find some aspect you want to test, set up a control circumstance (where something is as "normal" as it can be), then do some variants, changing only one thing for each test. Don't change temperature and surface area on the same test, nor change cut of beef and fat percentage, and so on.

Once you are quite sure you know what's happening with each of the single-change circumstances, you can do some more advanced experiments with modifying two things at a time. And, of course, eventually you'll get tired and just want to cook the rest up, and that's cool, too. Just be sure you record all of the results from the experiments when you're doing them, and then you can properly enjoy the cooking after.

It's a good point, James. I am reasonably certain that the overloading of the term "science" in "food science" is primarily because most of the people who study food science also jump straight into the engineering portion of it as well.

It's actually one of the reasons I really like to study how food works, because it's something that someone can easily jump from theory to experiment in their home, and then apply the results of that experiment onto their day-to-day cooking. Still, what someone can do in their home, someone can do in a factory with increased efficiency if not the same robustness of flavor.

It's certainly true what you write, hjcharesworth, but it is a lot more fiddly if you're missing out on extra pectin from the fruit itself. Thanks for the extra information; I suspect it will help someone out who wants a good clear jelly or jam in a large batch (one of the problems with the calcium-enriched pectin is that it makes a cloudier product), or someone who is having trouble finding such a product.

I think that reducing the leavening has a good chance of solving the collapsing center problem. Out of curiosity, how much flour and leavening are you using for this recipe?

By chance, is the recipe for the lemon pots de creme available online for me to peruse?

kelbel917, I've just returned from some travel, so I've not yet had a chance to find the pots to experiment with. I'm concerned, based on what purringcat and Betty_01 have written, that my plan of going with a cheap pot might be a poor idea. I'll have to find a good bargain on some small but quality stainless steel, apparently. Harumph.

Indeed, from a theoretical standpoint, the salt will raise the temperature of water. However, from the perspective of "Should I add the salt before or after the the water is boiling," or even, "Will the salt change how the spaghetti will cook," any concern for the boiling point is foolishness. Not only will it not raise the point any measurable amount, but the changes from the chemicals in the tap water, any sort of water softener you might use, and the eventual addition of starch from the pasta itself will all mix in to have a greater or lesser, but still negligible, effect.

From other perspectives, naturally it means different things and has different effects. From this perspective, it's foolishness.

Sorry about that, I had meant to explicitly name the refrigerator as a bad place for garlic. While the fridge is great for cold and dark, it's not so good for dry. You'd be better off putting it in a pantry, cabinet, or even a drawer in a cool section of your home. I tend to keep mine in a drawer in the kitchen, which is probably a bit close to the oven, and so my garlic dries out a bit faster than it otherwise might. However, it's convenient, so I'll use it for now.

Hi, Andy,

My first thought, inspired by reading through what you tried, was that perhaps when you scaled up, some ingredients that got rounded off weren't right in the end. You want 1/4tsp of baking soda (or 1 tsp of baking powder) for every 1 cup of flour or flour-like substance. So, if you had 8 cups of flour, one would think that 2tsp of baking soda would do.

But then I started thinking some more. What's in the recipe that activates the baking soda? Baking soda needs an acid, and while the dissolved espresso powder should be slightly acidic, your eggs are slightly alkaline as well, so that may come close to canceling out. There's sour cream, which would be perfect if it weren't in the icing. Harumph.

This is not the first recipe I've seen recently that uses baking soda where I don't think it would be wise to do so, which makes me wonder if perhaps I am missing something either obvious or subtle about the use of baking soda. So I did some more research, and, oh, yes, chocolate is acidic, so the melted chocolate will react with the baking soda.

Still, I would use 1 tsp of baking powder for every 1 cup of flour instead of the baking soda, or possibly split the difference. I talk a lot more about this sort of thing in http://www.finecooking.com/item/10257/baking-soda-and-baking-powder-too-much-of-a-good-thing which also details some of the other reasons to use and not use baking soda or baking powder.

Thank you, Pielove, I am indeed making pie crust and employing some of the theory for better crust.

Pam, lard can add quite a bit of flavor, depending on exactly what kind of lard you use (leaf lard is supposed to be very mild). So lard is safe with a savory pie, and many robust pies can probably handle it fine, but a delicate filling would just be overwhelmed.

I don't recommend this path. There are two general reasons to cook something: to enhance the flavor/texture, or to make it safer to eat. The sugar definitely isn't going to get rid of any pathogens in the egg, and I haven't noticed any improvement in texture or flavor from letting the sugar sit. The best course it to whip the sugar into the yolk, mix that into the cream, and enjoy yourself some custard.

Of course, someone more into the cutting-edge of food techniques may be able to come up with something that will work from that, but I haven't found any evidence of it yet.

Thanks, Lisa and Jenni. And good work on remembering the login. :)

Keri, you are quite welcome. If you're talking about the recipe I found for Golden Wheat Carrot Cake (or if she has another, similar recipe), then it would seem that she's neutralizing the 1/4 cup of lemon juice. Which is understandable. If it weren't something highly acidic like lemon juice, I'd probably lean towards swapping it out 1:4 with baking powder (you use 4 times as much baking powder as baking soda). However, 1/4 cup of lemon juice is quite a bit, which is why 2/3 of the leavening is coming from the soda.

In this instance, I'm pretty sure that most of the point behind the powder is the double action. Well, that and all the extra ingredients such as carrot. Normally, with two cups of flour, you'd only really need 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda. Nuts, raisins, and carrots are heavy things, though, and a little extra lift doesn't hurt in this instance.

You are quite welcome. I, as you may have noticed, am a big fan of Peter Reinhart.

Good luck with the starter!

Thanks, Lisa! It was remarkably easy to take photos in Italy. It's like a magical, photos always look nice place.

Roz, I think you've hit on one of the best parts of homemade pasta, in that not only do you get to make it yours, but you get to change it however you want, whenever you want. No need to wait for some manufacturer to come out with a new version. But that's one of the reasons we cook, isn't it?

You are quite welcome, I am always glad to help.

Fresh pasta with refined flour takes 1-3 minutes to cook. It's a pretty quick process.

That's very interesting. I had heard of using that trick for limes, but I thought that the structure for lemons was a different enough on the inside that it didn't warrant the technique. Now I know, thank you.

Well, I hope I didn't induce *too* much kitten-related trauma. Sometimes the metaphors are very effective. Have you managed to boil water since?

Thank you. The elephants are also fine.

Is it that hard to follow? My apologies.

The short form is that basic whisking mixes in air and starts to stretch out some of the protein molecules. The protein molecules form a mesh around the water, which surrounds the air. If you over-whisk, then the proteins coagulate and the water and air fall out.

If you want to stabilize the foam, you can cook it. Adding heat causes the protein ovalbumin to unfold, which increases the number of proteins immensely. It also causes a lot of the water to evaporate.

The proteins tend to connect to each other by losing the hydrogen in the sulfur-hydrogen bonds and forming sulfur-sulfur bonds. The more sulfur-sulfur bonds you have, the more intra-protein connections you have, which means the proteins are coagulating, which causes the water to fall out and the bubbles to collapse.

Adding an acid increases the number of hydrogen ions in the mix, so if one of the proteins lose one, chances are another one will reattach itself to the opening before another protein molecule with a loose sulfur molecule comes along to attach itself. As cream of tartar is an acid, it fulfills this role.

Thank you, CareBearNJ. Most of my fun comes from making up analogies. It's always good to have them appreciated.

My fingers are crossed, kamico. You should be able to make a wonderful buttercream.

Be sure, both you and DebIFF, to let me know what may have been useful the next time you try a buttercream.

You are quite welcome, Crystal. Sometimes it's hard to know what's important and what's just traditional when it comes to cooking.

And, Cooksbakesbooks, thank you very much. I will do my best to keep the science going.

Cane syrup and corn syrup are not interchangeable. Cane syrup is primarily sucrose, and corn syrup is primarily glucose. They act somewhat differently in candy making. If you are making a candy where you want to prevent crystal formation, adding in a bit of corn syrup will make things easier.

Strictly speaking, you could just make your own syrup by dissolving granulated white sugar into water. There are some impurities in white sugar that may cause some discoloration or change the flavor a bit. I would say give it a try with making your own sugar, but if you think it could be better, go with the cane syrup. As always, I'd be interested to hear if you prefer one way over the other.

Thank you, sercook. The salt/no salt distinction does make sense from an ideal perspective of what stocks and broths should be. After all, one does not want too to over-season one's food with extra salt in the stock. But even if that were commonly the case, it doesn't get to the heart of the matter, so I can see why you'd be skeptical of that explanation.

The Professional Chef is one of my under-utilized books in the "library." I didn't even think to look in that for this question. I'll have to keep it in mind for the future; lots of good information in there.

And fudge is its own kind of excitement, as you know. Sooo much stirring. I did some "tech support" over the holidays for a friend making fudge, and it took a while to get that one right. She almost gave up on the idea of cooking, but she persevered.

I am so glad. I started writing this one, and then I was running into "Wow, candy making is complex and all interrelated. I suspect if I hadn't figured it out by this point, I'd have to just write a book chapter on candy making. Heh.


Good luck with the next batch, and let me know if, you know, it actually does all work properly.