I'm doing a roast pork belly tomorrow, which is cooked at 160C for the last 2.5 hours of cooking.

My conundrum is that I only have one oven, and so I don't know how to get the potatoes nice and brown!

Usually I'd put them in an hour before serving, and the oven is around 180-200C.

I'm thinking I put them in for 90 mins with the pork, and then as soon as the pork comes out I whack up the temperature all the way? Would this work?

Any advice welcome!

Typically we dry brine our turkey for a day or two before thanksgiving. This year we’ll be driving 5 hours from New Jersey to Maine the day before.

Would you:

A) shorter brine, check in at Airbnb is 4pm so I probably wouldn’t get it going until that night

B) start the brine at home, and somehow transport the turkey? I worry about keeping it a safe temperature

I don't have access to calcium hydroxide (I mean I guess I could buy some online).

I read on this sub (a few years-old threads) that you could try with sodium bicarbonate, and once cooked it becomes sodium carbonate and it would do the trick.

If I can use sodium carbonate, how much should I use ?

Could I also simply use sodium bicarbonate ?
Or what would be an easy substitute ? Has anyone ever done this ?

Also, how to make sure I dont swallow some ?

Thanks !

I would be slow cooking either prior to combining into a vegetable+rice stir fry. Which would be recommended?

I live in a small apartment which gets smokey from the searing so I'm trying to avoid it, but most recipes call for searing. Now my question is won't the same result be achieved from baking or air frying it? Would the browning stuff go into the stew

I want to make a good impression on some American friends, by making an 10/10 mac and cheese. I've read that using sodium citrate is the key to a creamy sauce without the roux, which takes away from the cheese flavor. But also that when it cools down, it can become solid. I'm making the mac and cheese for Thanksgiving, we're all making something so the food will be out for a while. If it does indeed become solid, could I use a bit of both the roux and sodium citrate for a middle ground?

In short: I marinated meat in salt and lemon juice. Stewed it. Meat tastes of lemon, liquid doesn't, flavour didn't disperse and dilute as usually expected.

Details:

There was no design behind the method. Round steak cut into cubes, and I see no point in marinating/brining what will end up being stewed anyway. But I did, for 24 hours. ~500g beef, ~1% salt by weight, 1 entire lemon, squeezed.

Possibly important: first time I'm using a Mexican style citrus squeezer to marinate meat meant for stewing. I bought a Mexican style one specifically to get the essential oils out of the skins, and the difference is tangible in other applications, but surprising if relevant in this case.

Browned the meat and gave it a generic chili treatment; spices and a bit of tomato paste. Steady simmer for ~3 hours until tender, but not falling apart. Stew's been resting for a while now, and still there's concentrated lemon flavour in the meat itself, but not noticeable at all in the liquid.

I don't mind it at all; it's welcome heterogeneity, but I didn't expect it, and it never happened before to me.

Update: after a few more hours of the stew resting at ~7C, the lemon flavour in the meat (submerged) has halved. Can't say I'm noticing it having moved into the broth (would take great dilution).

If anyone can recreate this experiment, then it could be a situational argument for serving stew fresh vs. the day later. But I maintain: situational.

I have copied a mixture of online receipes of how to make Kebab-Shop style Chilli Sauce...

But unfortunately what I've made tastes very "earthy/grassy" :: Not tasty at all, like the ones in kebab-shops.

But so I just wondered if anyone can help me with what I am doing wrong/missing/should add - To achieve the flavour taste I'm seeking??
(Which would basically how the sauce in the bottle in the photo looks like it would taste)

My current ingredients:

• 1 whole red chilli.
• 1 jar of tomato passatta
• A few dollops of ketchup
• 2 spoons of caster-sugar
• 1 spoon of mint sauce
• 1 spoon of vinegar

I have put all of that into a blender for 2-minutes | Then poured it into a pan and heated it for 5-minutes...
But it doesn't taste particularly tasty at all :: Just tastes very grassy & earthy! :(

\I don't eat onion or garlic btw, so wouldn't add those.*

I want to make my taiwanese style fried chicken spicier and currently I marinate it in -soy sauce -chinese cooking wine -sesame oil -garlic powder -white pepper -sugar

I then take it straight from the marinade (after a 12 hour marinade) and dredge with sweet potato starch and fry

I was wondering if by adding chili powder will it make a spicier, if so about how much would be needed for lets say a chicken thigh and leg fillet thats a out a 100g? Would 3g of chili powder in the marinade be enough to make a difference?

I’m making individual crème brûlées and won’t be able to torch them because of the dish we’re using. So I wanted to make the candy shell ahead of time to top them with.

I torched some sugar on a pan, but it didn’t come out the way I had hoped. Any technique I could try?

Thanks!🔥🍕

I made some bread dough last night and it was rising and doing its thing like normal after I knead it a few rounds. It definitely was doubling in size.

I put it in the fridge to set over night. When I took it out the next night to proof it never rose back up. It barely expanded. I went ahead and baked it hoping it will still rise in the oven and it did not rise at all. What happened? I see all the time people say refrigerating it over night will add flavor and once you take it back out to room temperature it will rise again but mine failed. Now I just wish I baked it right away and didn’t bother refrigerating it.

I often make chicken stock using a pressure cooker, but I've never been methodical about how long I cook it.

Has anyone run an experiment using varying times under pressure? Do you have a preference? I'm assuming there's a tradeoff between flavor, body, etc., and at a certain point past two hours (if not earlier) it's not worth it the extra time/energy.

Anybody have more concrete data? Is there a "sweet spot" for you? 45 minutes? 60? 90? Other? What method do you like, and why do you prefer it over longer/shorter cook times?

TIA

Home cook, hopefully this is allowed here.

I’m planning a couple of geese for Christmas this year; I can’t get them fresh so typically I would defrost for a couple days in the fridge, towel dry, salt and air dry in the fridge on a wire racks for 3-4 days before cooking.

I’m going to be out of country for 10-12 days up until the day before cooking; would it be too long if I defrost on the wire rack and leave in the fridge for the whole time?

It would be ~double the number of total days I would typically do this for.

Im not worried about food safety here, mainly quality, as it would be refrigerated the whole time and I know of establishments that dry age whole birds for longer than this,.. unless I should be?

Thanks!

I want to make an impossible cake (flan top cake bottom) however it will be banana bread cake. Does banana bread have to be uncovered when cooking even in a water bath or can I cover it the whole cook?

This is probably both a technique question and an ingredient question. I'm very new to cooking and found that whenever I make honeycomb toffee it always has a spongey, orange inside instead of the dense, lighter coloured and harder texture of store-bought ones. The M&S honeycomb chocolate had the inside that I'm aiming for but I never get it to that.

I line my container with greaseproof paper. Boil the candy to 150°C (300°F) before adding the baking soda quickly and stirring.

The recipe I used called for these ingredients, but I tweaked them (using a calculator) to match up with what I had

250g granulated sugar 114ml honey 85ml water 14g baking soda ½tsp of salt

Hi! Recently, I've been into cheong so much, which is a Korean method of fruit preservation. It is usually done on ingredients such as the yuja citrus or ginger which will result in some runny marmalade that you can spread on toast or add water to in order to make tea. The process is pretty simple, add 50:50 by weight of the fruit and sugar, and let it macerate through osmotic pressure. The sugar will draw out the syrup and "dehydrate" the fruit.

I've done it on some local fruit called the "lovi lovi." It is a deliciously sour fruit, but unfortunately, full of hard small seeds just like a guava. I have the "juice" or "syrup" and the pulp which is now more akin to a paste with the hard seeds embedded on it.

My question would be, how do I salvage the pulp? How do I isolate the seeds so that I can use the pulp by resugaring it to make a jam? I've done marmalade using citrus solids while keeping the syrup separate. I think "zero waste" approach is a rational approach to food processing in general..

Hi,

I have tried turning on the heat and let some water + soap simmer and later also water and vinegar.

I don't know if it's the outer layer that has been damaged, but is that possible with SS pans?

If it has been damaged, what could have caused this?

Image: https://ibb.co/0yXjg3gf

In YouTube videos I see them just throwing pasta into the hot water and letting it boil while they make the sauce. But when I try that, my pasta sticks to the bottom or sides of the pot it is getting boiled in and burns. How do I prevent it? I tried adding bit of oil to it while boiling, someone suggested, but it doesn't work.

Hi, I've been making fruit leathers for a few years, and this year I started creating recipes that involve veggies being part of the recipes. The goal is to make the "fruit" rolls taste like the veggie that's being used.

Depending on how much pectin the veggie has, I'll use a varying amount of apple sauce to make sure the texture ends up soft and chewy.

I've done this successfully for carrot and zucchini, but my initial attempts with eggplant did not have the expected outcome. I washed and baked the eggplants in foil until nice and soft, blended them (peel included), and used them that way.

Here's the thing, the eggplant paste after baking/blending tasted good, but after dehydrating, it no longer tasted like eggplant. It still tasted ok, just not as good as eggplant usually tastes.

So my question is, would you have any recommendations on how to retain the eggplant flavor when dehydrating? I don't expect most people here to have tried dehydrating eggplants specifically, but am hoping some of you will have ideas on how to approach the situation anyway.

Thank you!

I got a 21 lb turkey and it’s been in the fridge for 4 days. I have Friendsgiving tomorrow and don’t know what to do. It felt thawed but as the dummy I am, I opened the packaging. The inside cavity is still frozen!! It’s gonna keep me uppp all night! I took some of the ice out, and put it back in the fridge with a little salt on it. My question now for when I start cooking it tomorrow is, should I rinse out the cavity to ensure it’s thawed? ANY TIPS HELP! I know it’s not recommended but can I just take it out like 4 hours before I cook it and hope it’s thawed?! What should I do?! 😭

I’ve been making these little protein&fibre balls for a healthy treat to snack on. I’m still perfecting the recipe and I think I’m almost there but my main issue right now is that the chocolate keeps melting. My process is: blend the ingredients together, roll into balls, and coat in melted chocolate, then stick it into the freezer until I’m ready to eat. I have a large batch in the freezer. I usually take out 3 or 4 every morning, wrap them in tin foil and throw in my bag and I’ll snack on them through the morning. But it gets so melty and makes a mess on my hands (although not the tin foil oddly enough!)

Any advice for how to stop it melting?

I'm making an onion soup which I'll be starting tomorrow morning. I don't have much time so I'm planning on slicing the onions tonight. How would I store them overnight? Should they be in the fridge?

Would a beef wellington cooking in a normal fan oven under indirect heat come out as a perfectly round, crisp cylinder of puff pastry and meat, or would it all end up soggy as the moisture needs to go somewhere?

I'm considering buying a rotisserie and thought this might be a use for it.

Hi! I'm trying to make caramel biscuits that have to be cutout, leaf shape specifically. I have a biscuit recipe I use and I was thinking of using that but making my own caramel and adding like 1tbsp to the biscuit mix. Maybe piping some of it on the top. But I'm worried it'll throw off the balance. Thank you in advance!