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1500 questions
20
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1 answer
Why does salt enhance the flavor of food?
I eat a lot of salt. It makes almost everything taste better, including:
Meat
Cookies
Vegetables
Sauces
Chocolate
much more
It seems to me like salt makes almost anything better, but it doesn't just make it better because now I taste salt. It…
Caleb
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Flammable gas emitted by sausage
While cooking a kielbasa in a toaster oven today, I noticed that periodically there would be flashes near the heating element. At one point there was a very large, bright flash of light and pop as though a flammable gas was being detonated. Some of…
Drisheen Colcannon
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7 answers
How to thicken Thai curry
I made some Thai red curry a few days ago. It turned out pretty well. The only problem is that it was fairly runny. I thickened it up with a slurry which helped a bit. I doubt a roux would have any more thickening power. I'm sure there's got to be a…
Michael Mior
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3 answers
What kind of tea do you boil for 45minutes?
In her autobiographic graphic novel Embroideries Marjane Satrapi casually mentions how she used to prepare tea with a samowar during her childhood by properly boiling the tea leaves for 45minutes. Proper boiling is emphasized in the text. From…
mart
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Recommendations for spice organization strategies
Spices have always been the hardest thing for me to keep track of in the kitchen. I'm interested in specific recommendations for
hardware (containers, labeling, shelving, etc.) and
organization schemes (alphabetical? categories?)
in order to…
Herb Caudill
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13 answers
Why do yolks break so easily (sometimes)?
Separating eggs without breaking the yolk isn't one of those problems that keeps me awake at night. Nevertheless, there are occasions where I can't get a single damn yolk to hold together and other times when I can do anything short of play a round…
Chris Steinbach
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6 answers
What methods make tomato chopping less messy?
Chopping tomato is real mess sometimes. I just want to know that what is the best chop tomatoes without any mess?
One trick I did was to deep freeze tomatoes before cutting them and then used to chop them. But if we don't have time to deep freeze…
The Hungry Dictator
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6 answers
How to calculate the calorie content of cooked food?
I like to cook from scratch, and I'm currently trying to loose a few pounds. I know that cooked food is generally more calorific than raw food, so if I add up the calories of the ingredients I know it won't give an accurate result.
So my questions…
Peter Coulton
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How can huge bubbles in pizza crust be prevented?
When making pizza, often the dough bubbles up hugely, displacing toppings and generally making a mess of the pie.
Are there any secrets to preventing this? Does the key lie in the dough recipe, the distribution of toppings, or something else? Or is…
TJ Ellis
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16 answers
What is the most efficient way to squeeze water out of cooked spinach?
I'm cooking a bunch of spinach for making a spinach and ricotta filling. I need to get as much water as possible out of the spinach, and I'd prefer not to make a big mess in the process. In the past, I've wrapped a few handfuls at a time in a towel…
Michael Natkin
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2 answers
How was the usage of yeast for bread discovered?
From where did people get the yeast for their bread??
user41277
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2 answers
What causes the green ring between yolk and white when hardboiling an egg?
The yolk of a hardboiled egg often has a green tinge right at the interface to the white. Besides not looking very good, I think it also maybe contributes a sulfurous odor. What causes this green coloration and how can I prevent it?
Michael Natkin
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3 answers
20
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5 answers
Cooking steak in frying pan, problem with oil splatter
I was using canola oil and put the stove top setting on "high - 9". I read plenty of guides suggesting there will infact be oil splatter, but it was pretty excessive and burning my arm with one drop getting near my eye before I stopped. I turned the…
user3262272
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3 answers
Charles Darwin high altitude cooking of potatoes
I just read about Charles Darwin's attempt to boil potatoes while at high altitudes.
In The Voyage of the Beagle you can read:
Having crossed the Peuquenes [Piuquenes], we descended into a mountainous country, intermediate between the two main…
rasmushaglund
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