Howard_2's Profile
Homemade BBQ Sauce without using Sugar.
"pretty well-established that they're worse for you than sugar"? Documentation please, Professor.
As to the drawbacks of sugar...are you familiar with some of the work that's been done by, umm, is it Dr. Lustig?
Homemade ketjap manis: use brown sugar, or caramelize the sugar?
I've seen 2 different classes of recipes for ketjap manis. One caramelizes the sugar, the other mixes brown sugar with soy sauce and other ingredients.
I made the one using caramelized sugar. It's a bit of a pain in the neck, because dissolving the caramelized sugar with the soy sauce takes a lot of stirring.
Anyone have any opinions on which is better? Does it really matter, since presumably the sugar, in whatever form, is a tiny part of a finished dish?
Need help making sauerkraut from scratch
I recently made some sauerkraut from scratch, and altho it tasted OK, and smelled "pretty much OK", I thot I detected a yeasty aroma. (I only tasted a tiny amount.) I used the appropriate amount of salt for the amount of cabbage I had, and I was scrupulously clean, I sealed the fermenting jar with a bag of brine, etc etc.
Can anyone suggest what I did wrong? And more important, a way to avoid yeast when fermenting cabbage?
I make some (classic style) fermented kosher-style dill pickles, and that process is not nearly as complicated or fussy as cabbage. I wash the kirby cucumbers, weight them down in a plastic (food grade) pail, put in spices and brine, and wait 7--10 days. I tried this method years ago with cabbage (I wrapped the cabbage shreds in cheesecloth), and I don't recall the results, except that the results were not satisfying.
There must be some simpler way. Anyone have suggestions? The taste of fresh ( uncooked) sauerkraut is just fabulous.
Do you like induction cooktops? Details, please.
I've always thought of induction cooktops as gimmicks, not nearly as flexible or useful as gas, etc. But it occurs to me that I could be wrong.
So i'd appreciate any comments or stories (from experience) anyone can supply. Can you use all the cookware you used before getting the induction cooktop? Amount of heat it can supply? ETC. I am in the very early stages of planning a kitchen remodelling. Thanks.
a rant about some recipes
These posts are all extremely interestg.
It seems to me that the bottom line is, a cook has to be extremely careful--and/or thought-ful--when making a recipe, esp. if it comes from the (really) MASS media, but also if it comes from a cookbook.
And wasn't there some sort of scandal a few years ago abouta cookbook by some celeb or celebrated author, that was shown not to have tested, recipe by recipe?
a rant about some recipes
tcamp:
1. I, too, have never noticed low-sodium hoisin.
2. You're absolutely right about recipes in many mass media. The writers of those recipes, aside from often being ignorant about basic food principles ("boil water till sugar dissolves"??? C'mon!), seem to me to be afraid that readers will object to robust tastes--and as well, will be too stupid to understand "if you think 1/2 tsp of herb X is too much, use 1/4 tsp!"
a rant about some recipes
I was leafing through a spice catalog I received (from a company that shall remain nameless). There was a recipe for chicken skewers with sauce.
The recipe includes these ingredients (exact quote):
3 T soy sauce (we used reduced sodium)
1/2 C hoisin sauce (...lower sodium if you can find it)
1/4 t powdered ginger
I have 2 observations about these ingredients:
1. This recipe produces 12 skewers. So how much sodium per serving does the recipe creator think will be saved?
2. Only 1/4 t ginger? What is the recipe creator afraid of, that people will actually get a taste or hint of ginger?
Seeking listing of gas cooktops & wall ovens
Does anyone here know of a site (or organization?) with a comprehensive, searchable listing of:
--drop-in gas cooktops
--gas wall ovens?
I will be doing some kitchen remodeling soon, and I'm looking for sites that I can search by specification, e.g. "show me all cooktops of 12,000 or more BTUs, or show me all 30" cooktops , etc. Same for wall ovens.
Thanks.
How come my 2-week-old Don Julio flour tortillas are NOT moldy?
OK, but *why* are they shelf-stable? Chemicals? Moisture content?
How come my 2-week-old Don Julio flour tortillas are NOT moldy?
I opened this package of tortillas at least 2 weeks ago. By now I would have expected it to get moldy. There must be something in it that prevents mold. But whatr?
ISO Chocolate sauce recipe
I'm looking for a recipe for chocolate sauce (e.g. to dress fruit) that contains sugar, water, unsweetened chocolate, and maybe anything else--but not corn syrup or milk.
Anyone have any ideas or personal knowledge?
Why did my homemade butter come out light blue?
drongo, in addition to my earlier comment, let me add that there simply is no way I had mold. This was fresh cream, turned into butter within 24 hours of buying it, kept refrigerated, etc.
Why did my homemade butter come out light blue?
I realize that; no offense taken. And I appreciate your input. If I'd used, say, aluminum, then I'd wonder about that....
Why did my homemade butter come out light blue?
See my reply above. CLEAN implements; stainless steel bowl.
Why did my homemade butter come out light blue?
I used a CLEAN bowl & whisk. The bowl is stamped "stainless steel" on the bottom. Not sure what the whisk was made of, but almost certainly not aluminum.
I'm not sure now what kind of cream it was--maybe "ultra pasturized"?
Why did my homemade butter come out light blue?
CanadaGirl et al:
I clarified the butter today, which is what I'd been planning to do all along. The fat phase was yellow, and the water phase was a sort of bluish-gray! I wish I knew what this was all about.
Why did my homemade butter come out light blue?
No. I looked at in a variety of diff. situations. Definitely a slight bluish tinge.
Why did my homemade butter come out light blue?
As an experiment, I made butter, from heavy cream, by hand. (Slight period of mental illness.) It turned out a very pale blue, not yellow.
Anyone have any ideas why? Or ever read of this? It tastes and performs OK.
Why won't my lentils come out "fluffy"? Does anyone;'s lentils come out fluffy?
I have a recipe for a nice lentil dish (lentils, caramelized onions, herbs & spices) that includes the direction to get your cooked lentils "fluffy".
When I cook *red* lentils, either after first soaking them, or cookg them w/o soaking, they come out kind of mushy, even cooked for a short period of time; there's no way these things are gonna get "fluffy".
Can regular brown lentils ever be cooked so as to get "fluffy"?
Need some help/expertise re making kimchi
Tnx for your reply. I'm gonna make a batch tomorrow using this method. I've made several batches over the years using just napa, garlic, etc., and they turned out "OK", but merely so--not what I'd call great. Maybe this way will be better.
Need some help/expertise re making kimchi
I just picked up "The Kimchi Chronicles", a Korean cookbook by Marja VonGerichten (yes, wife of the famous V.)
In this book she gives a recipe for kim chi that involves making a paste or sauce using sweet rice powder.
I've never seen a kim chi recipe that takes this approach. The kimchi recipe(s) I'm familiar with, and have tried, all involve salting the napa to remove some water, then letting it ferment. And the labels on the commercial kimchi that I buy at the Korean market do not list rice powder. (I suspect the purpose of this stuff is to assist fermentation.)
So can anyone here speak knowledgeably about this approach to making kimchi, vs. just letting the nappa (and spices etc) ferment naturally?
Thanks.
"El Ariz" (sp.?) Norwood area?
A fellow I know who's Lebanese told me that a place like the now-defunct Homsy's opened in Norwood Center, near Town Hall. He said the name of the place was Al Ariz or El Ariz - not sure of the spelling.
Anyone been there, or know anything about this place?
How long can chicken be simmered before it falls apart?
I have a recipe for "Orange Khoresh"--a Persian (Iranian) dish in which chicken pieces are simmered in liquid (orange juice, vinegar, lime juice, sugar).
The recipe calls for simmering chicken legs for a total of 1 hour 35 minutes!
It seems to me that simmering chicken for that long will turn it into mush.
Has anyone here ever simmered chicken for that long? If so, what were the results? Is it possible that this dish is *supposed* to turn the chicken into mush?
Seeking recipe for tang zhong (chinese hot dog rolls) (or cookbook containing it)
I'm looking for a recipe for tang zhong --a/k/a chinese hot dog rolls (dough)--that uses volume measurements, rather than weight. I did some searching and all the recipes I found, used weight measurements.
Even better would be a cookbook containing this and related recipes....
Does/did Eastern European pickling (and/or cooking in general) use vinegar?
Below is a link to an Op-Ed article from the 08/04/11 NY Times in which the writer (a woman who wrote a book about European foodways of 100+ years ago) says that Eastern European cooking or cooks used (a lot of?) vinegar.
Do you know if this is true? This does not sound right to me. Sauerkraut and NY-style pickles are *fermented*, not made with vinegar, and I don't think you could ferment any vegetables if you used vinegar in the process.
Nor can I think of any classic Eastern European dishes that are known for vinegar.
Would appreciate reading anything from anyone who can address this matter knowledgeably.
Here is the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/04/opinion/immigrant-identities-preserved-in-vinegar.html?_r=1&hp
Is there a name for this style of feeding oneself?
Ahh, yes, that sounds familiar. This fellow's father was British, and that's what he does with the tines--pointing down.
Is there a name for this style of feeding oneself?
It seems to me that eating that way masks or minimizes the taste (and other components, e.g. mouth-feel) of foods.
I observed this individual for a while and he continued to do the same thing, bite after bite--a little of food A, a little of B, a little of C, into the mouth//repeat.
I had the sense that he must have been trained as a child to eat that way.
I personally like to savor each individual item.
Is there a name for this style of feeding oneself?
I can't figure out what board this should go on, so I'm posting it here.
I know a fellow who eats his dinner (and perhaps other meals as well) in an unusual way, and I'm wondering if anyone else has ever seen this, and if it has a name or is identified with some particular culture:
what he does is, every forkful has a little of each item on the dinner plate. So for expl let's say he has on his plate steak, string beans, and mashed potatoes. He cuts a piece of steak, puts it on his fork; adds a few strong beans (perhaps using his knife to get them on the fork), and then add adds a little mashed potato. Thus, every mouthful has a little of each item--and to my mind, the taste of any individual item is obscured, at best.
Anyone have a name for this, or any observations on it?
